Comment Request; Review of Productivity Statistics, 67776-67777 [2010-27727]
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 212 / Wednesday, November 3, 2010 / Notices
eligibility to apply for Trade Adjustment
Assistance (TAA) applicable to workers
and former workers of the subject public
agency. The determination was issued
on June 17, 2010, and the Notice of
Determination was published in the
Federal Register on July 1, 2010 (75 FR
38142).
Pursuant to 29 CFR 90.18(c)
reconsideration may be granted under
the following circumstances:
(1) If it appears on the basis of facts
not previously considered that the
determination complained of was
erroneous;
(2) If it appears that the determination
complained of was based on a mistake
in the determination of facts not
previously considered; or
(3) If in the opinion of the Certifying
Officer, a mis-interpretation of facts or
of the law justified reconsideration of
the decision.
The negative determination of the
TAA petition filed on behalf of workers
at Washington Department of
Transportation, Olympic Division,
Aberdeen Maintenance Office, Chehalis
Drawbridge Tenders, Aberdeen,
Washington, was based on the finding
that the public agency (the Chehalis
Drawbridge) that is the subject of this
case did not acquire services like or
directly competitive to drawbridge
operation and maintenance services
from a foreign country.
In the request for reconsideration the
petitioning union official stated that the
workers of the subject firm should be
eligible for TAA because the initial
decision was based on a
misinterpretation of the new language
for certification of public entities. The
petitioner alleged that the bridge tenders
lost their jobs due to the closure of
several upstream facilities (notably the
Weyerhaeuser complex, for which there
are several current certifications), and
those plant closures lessened river
traffic to the point that the bridge
operated by the workers laid off by the
subject agency could go unattended.
The petitioner refers to the bridge and
its tenders as a secondary supplier
which he believes should qualify for
benefits because of their relationship to
the certified Weyerhaeuser facilities
upriver from the bridge.
The group eligibility requirements for
workers of a Public Agency can only be
satisfied if the criteria as depicted in the
initial decision are met.
The petitioner did not supply facts
not previously considered; nor provide
additional documentation indicating
that there was either (1) a mistake in the
determination of facts not previously
considered or (2) a misinterpretation of
facts or of the law justifying
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19:21 Nov 02, 2010
Jkt 223001
reconsideration of the initial
determination.
After careful review of the request for
reconsideration, the Department
determines that 29 CFR 90.18(c) has not
been met.
Conclusion
After review of the application and
investigative findings, I conclude that
there has been no error or
misinterpretation of the law or of the
facts which would justify
reconsideration of the Department of
Labor’s prior decision. Accordingly, the
application is denied.
Signed in Washington, DC, this 8th day of
October, 2010.
Elliott S. Kushner,
Certifying Officer, Office of Trade Adjustment
Assistance.
[FR Doc. 2010–27762 Filed 11–2–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510–FN–P
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Comment Request; Review of
Productivity Statistics
Notice of solicitation of
comments.
ACTION:
The Department of Labor
through the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) is responsible for publishing
measures of labor productivity and
multifactor productivity for major
sectors and industries of the United
States economy. BLS periodically
conducts formal reviews of its programs
in order to assess their content,
methodology, efficiency, and
effectiveness. To enhance the quality
and relevance of productivity data, BLS
is soliciting comments on the scope and
coverage of these data, on the methods
used in constructing them, and on areas
of interest for future program
development.
SUMMARY:
Written comments must be
submitted to the office listed in the
Addresses section of this notice on or
before December 3, 2010.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Michael
J. Harper, Office of Productivity and
Technology, Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Room 2150, 2 Massachusetts Avenue,
NE., Washington, DC 20212 or by e-mail
to: optfeedback@bls.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Michael J. Harper, Office of Productivity
and Technology, Bureau of Labor
Statistics, telephone number 202–691–
5600, or by e-mail at
optfeedback@bls.gov.
DATES:
PO 00000
Frm 00095
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Department of Labor through the
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is
responsible for publishing measures of
labor productivity and multifactor
productivity for major sectors and
industries of the United States economy.
The Office of Productivity and
Technology (OPT) differs from other
BLS programs in that it does not
conduct surveys to collect data. Instead,
it produces productivity estimates from
published and unpublished data
collected and compiled by other BLS
programs, the Bureau of Economic
Analysis, the Census Bureau, other
Federal statistical agencies, and the
Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve System.
Labor productivity is defined as
output per hour worked. BLS reports
quarterly on productivity growth and its
components (output and hours) and on
other measures, such as unit labor costs
and hourly compensation. These
measures are produced for the business,
nonfarm business, and manufacturing
sectors, and for nonfinancial
corporations. The quarterly measures
are designated by the Office of
Management and Budget as a Principal
Federal Economic Indicator. BLS also
produces annual measures of labor
productivity for about 400 detailed
industries. BLS labor productivity data
are available at the following Internet
address: https://www.bls.gov/lpc/.
BLS also produces estimates of
multifactor productivity (MFP), which
is defined as output per unit of
combined inputs. The combined inputs
include hours and capital services; in
some cases, additional inputs include
labor composition and intermediate
goods and services. BLS reports MFP
growth, along with its components
(output, capital, hours, etc.) and other
measures such as capital-labor ratios,
capital user costs, and labor
composition indexes. These measures
are designed to analyze the effects of
technological change on economic
growth, the substitutability of inputs,
and changes in the composition of
inputs and outputs. BLS produces
annual measures of multifactor
productivity for private business,
private nonfarm business, and
manufacturing sectors and for many
detailed industries. BLS MFP data are
available at the following Internet
address: https://www.bls.gov/mfp/.
II. Productivity Coverage and Methods
The quarterly nonfarm business labor
productivity measures are constructed
within the conceptual framework of the
E:\FR\FM\03NON1.SGM
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 212 / Wednesday, November 3, 2010 / Notices
jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES
U.S. National Income and Product
Accounts (NIPAs) published by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
The output data are based on a valueadded concept and come from productside estimates of Gross Domestic
Product.
The primary source of hours data is
the BLS Current Employment Statistics
(CES) program, which collects hours
paid for nonsupervisory workers. These
data are adjusted using data from the
Current Population Survey, the National
Compensation Survey, and other
sources to account for differences
between the desired concept of hours
(hours worked for all employed persons)
and the CES concept (hours paid for
production and nonsupervisory
employees).
For detailed industries, annual output
measures represent the total value of
goods and services produced, and are
based primarily on data from the U.S.
Census Bureau. These measures use a
sectoral output concept, which differs
from real gross output in that it excludes
output that is shipped to other
establishments in the same industry. As
with the nonfarm business sector
productivity, industry hours are
constructed primarily from payroll data
from the BLS CES survey, supplemented
with data from the CPS and other
Federal data sources.
Multifactor productivity is estimated
in a conceptual framework based on the
economic theory of the firm. This
framework guides the construction and
interpretation of the measures. For the
private business and nonfarm business
sectors, value added output is compared
to inputs of labor and capital. For
detailed industries, sectoral output is
compared to capital and labor inputs as
well as intermediate inputs of energy,
non-energy materials and business
services provided by establishments
outside of each industry or sector.
III. Desired Focus of Comments
Comments and recommendations are
requested from the public on the
following aspects of the BLS
productivity measurement program:
• The scope and amount of detail
covered by and published in the
productivity datasets.
• The concepts and frameworks used
in measuring outputs, inputs, and
productivity.
• The sources of data used in
productivity measurement.
• Areas of research that the BLS
productivity program should
emphasize.
In your recommendations to the
productivity program, it would be
particularly helpful if you could explain
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19:21 Nov 02, 2010
Jkt 223001
how the changes would make the data
more accurate or more useful.
Signed at Washington, DC, this 28th day of
October 2010.
Kimberley Hill,
Chief, Division of Management Systems,
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 2010–27727 Filed 11–2–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510–24–P
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
[Docket No. 2010–4]
Copyright Office; Federal Copyright
Protection of Sound Recordings Fixed
Before February 15, 1972
Copyright Office, Library of
Congress.
ACTION: Notice of inquiry.
AGENCY:
Congress has directed the
Copyright Office to conduct a study on
the desirability and means of bringing
sound recordings fixed before February
15, 1972, under Federal jurisdiction.
Currently, such sound recordings are
protected under a patchwork of State
statutory and common laws from their
date of creation until 2067. This notice
requests written comments from all
interested parties regarding Federal
coverage of pre-1972 sound recordings.
Specifically, the Office seeks comments
on the likely effect of Federal protection
upon preservation and public access,
and the effect upon the economic
interests of rights holders. The Office
also seeks comments on how the
incorporation of pre-1972 sound
recordings into Federal law might best
be achieved.
DATES: Initial written comments must be
received in the Office of the General
Counsel of the Copyright Office no later
than December 20, 2010. Reply
comments must be received in the
Office of the General Counsel of the
Copyright Office no later than December
3, 2010.
ADDRESSES: The Copyright Office
strongly prefers that comments be
submitted electronically. A comment
page containing a comment form is
posted on the Copyright Office Web site
at https://www.copyright.gov/docs/
sound/comments/comment-submissionindex.html. The Web site interface
requires submitters to complete a form
specifying name and organization, as
applicable, and to upload comments as
an attachment via a browse button. To
meet accessibility standards, each
comment must be uploaded in a single
file in either the Adobe Portable
Document File (PDF) format that
contains searchable, accessible text (not
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
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67777
an image); Microsoft Word;
WordPerfect; Rich Text Format (RTF); or
ASCII text file format (not a scanned
document). The maximum file size is 6
megabytes (MB). The name of the
submitter and organization should
appear on both the form and the face of
the comments. All comments will be
posted on the Copyright Office Web site,
along with names and organizations.
If electronic submission of comments
is not feasible, comments may be
delivered in hard copy. If hand
delivered by a private party, an original
and five copies of a comment or reply
comment should be brought to the
Library of Congress, U.S. Copyright
Office, Room LM–401, James Madison
Building, 101 Independence Ave., SE.,
Washington, DC 20559, between 8:30
a.m. and 5 p.m. The envelope should be
addressed as follows: Office of the
General Counsel, U.S. Copyright Office.
If delivered by a commercial courier,
an original and five copies of a comment
or reply comment must be delivered to
the Congressional Courier Acceptance
Site (‘‘CCAS’’) located at 2nd and D
Streets, SE., Washington, DC between
8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. The envelope
should be addressed as follows: Office
of the General Counsel, U.S. Copyright
Office, LM–403, James Madison
Building, 101 Independence Avenue,
SE., Washington, DC 20559. Please note
that CCAS will not accept delivery by
means of overnight delivery services
such as Federal Express, United Parcel
Service or DHL.
If sent by mail (including overnight
delivery using U.S. Postal Service
Express Mail), an original and five
copies of a comment or reply comment
should be addressed to U.S. Copyright
Office, Copyright GC/I&R, P.O. Box
70400, Washington, DC 20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
David O. Carson, General Counsel, or
Chris Weston, Attorney Advisor.
Copyright GC/I&R, P.O. Box 70400,
Washington, DC 20024. Telephone:
(202) 707–8380. Telefax: (202) 707–
8366.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
The Copyright Office is conducting a
study on ‘‘the desirability of and means
for bringing sound recordings fixed
before February 15, 1972, under federal
jurisdiction.’’ When it enacted the
Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009,
Congress directed the Register of
Copyrights to conduct such a study and
seek comments from interested parties.
H. Comm. On Appropriations, H.R.
1105, Public Law 111–8 [Legislative
Text and Explanatory Statement] 1769
E:\FR\FM\03NON1.SGM
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 212 (Wednesday, November 3, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67776-67777]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-27727]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Comment Request; Review of Productivity Statistics
ACTION: Notice of solicitation of comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department of Labor through the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) is responsible for publishing measures of labor productivity and
multifactor productivity for major sectors and industries of the United
States economy. BLS periodically conducts formal reviews of its
programs in order to assess their content, methodology, efficiency, and
effectiveness. To enhance the quality and relevance of productivity
data, BLS is soliciting comments on the scope and coverage of these
data, on the methods used in constructing them, and on areas of
interest for future program development.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the
Addresses section of this notice on or before December 3, 2010.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Michael J. Harper, Office of Productivity
and Technology, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 2150, 2 Massachusetts
Avenue, NE., Washington, DC 20212 or by e-mail to: optfeedback@bls.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael J. Harper, Office of
Productivity and Technology, Bureau of Labor Statistics, telephone
number 202-691-5600, or by e-mail at optfeedback@bls.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Department of Labor through the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) is responsible for publishing measures of labor productivity and
multifactor productivity for major sectors and industries of the United
States economy. The Office of Productivity and Technology (OPT) differs
from other BLS programs in that it does not conduct surveys to collect
data. Instead, it produces productivity estimates from published and
unpublished data collected and compiled by other BLS programs, the
Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau, other Federal
statistical agencies, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System.
Labor productivity is defined as output per hour worked. BLS
reports quarterly on productivity growth and its components (output and
hours) and on other measures, such as unit labor costs and hourly
compensation. These measures are produced for the business, nonfarm
business, and manufacturing sectors, and for nonfinancial corporations.
The quarterly measures are designated by the Office of Management and
Budget as a Principal Federal Economic Indicator. BLS also produces
annual measures of labor productivity for about 400 detailed
industries. BLS labor productivity data are available at the following
Internet address: https://www.bls.gov/lpc/.
BLS also produces estimates of multifactor productivity (MFP),
which is defined as output per unit of combined inputs. The combined
inputs include hours and capital services; in some cases, additional
inputs include labor composition and intermediate goods and services.
BLS reports MFP growth, along with its components (output, capital,
hours, etc.) and other measures such as capital-labor ratios, capital
user costs, and labor composition indexes. These measures are designed
to analyze the effects of technological change on economic growth, the
substitutability of inputs, and changes in the composition of inputs
and outputs. BLS produces annual measures of multifactor productivity
for private business, private nonfarm business, and manufacturing
sectors and for many detailed industries. BLS MFP data are available at
the following Internet address: https://www.bls.gov/mfp/.
II. Productivity Coverage and Methods
The quarterly nonfarm business labor productivity measures are
constructed within the conceptual framework of the
[[Page 67777]]
U.S. National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) published by the
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The output data are based on a
value-added concept and come from product-side estimates of Gross
Domestic Product.
The primary source of hours data is the BLS Current Employment
Statistics (CES) program, which collects hours paid for nonsupervisory
workers. These data are adjusted using data from the Current Population
Survey, the National Compensation Survey, and other sources to account
for differences between the desired concept of hours (hours worked for
all employed persons) and the CES concept (hours paid for production
and nonsupervisory employees).
For detailed industries, annual output measures represent the total
value of goods and services produced, and are based primarily on data
from the U.S. Census Bureau. These measures use a sectoral output
concept, which differs from real gross output in that it excludes
output that is shipped to other establishments in the same industry. As
with the nonfarm business sector productivity, industry hours are
constructed primarily from payroll data from the BLS CES survey,
supplemented with data from the CPS and other Federal data sources.
Multifactor productivity is estimated in a conceptual framework
based on the economic theory of the firm. This framework guides the
construction and interpretation of the measures. For the private
business and nonfarm business sectors, value added output is compared
to inputs of labor and capital. For detailed industries, sectoral
output is compared to capital and labor inputs as well as intermediate
inputs of energy, non-energy materials and business services provided
by establishments outside of each industry or sector.
III. Desired Focus of Comments
Comments and recommendations are requested from the public on the
following aspects of the BLS productivity measurement program:
The scope and amount of detail covered by and published in
the productivity datasets.
The concepts and frameworks used in measuring outputs,
inputs, and productivity.
The sources of data used in productivity measurement.
Areas of research that the BLS productivity program should
emphasize.
In your recommendations to the productivity program, it would be
particularly helpful if you could explain how the changes would make
the data more accurate or more useful.
Signed at Washington, DC, this 28th day of October 2010.
Kimberley Hill,
Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 2010-27727 Filed 11-2-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-P
