Employment and Training Administration – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Employment and Training Administration of the Department of Labor (DOL) is issuing this notice to announce updates to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) for the employment of temporary or seasonal nonimmigrant foreign workers (H-2A workers) to perform herding or production of livestock on the range. AEWRs are the minimum wage rates the DOL has determined must be offered, advertised in recruitment, and paid by employers to H-2A workers and workers in corresponding employment so that the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States (U.S.) similarly employed will not be adversely affected. In this notice, DOL announces the annual update of the AEWR for workers engaged in the herding or production of livestock on the range, as required by the methodology previously established in 2015.

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, "Criteria and Non-Criteria Agricultural Clearance Order Forms and H-2A Application for Temporary Employment Certification in States and by Employers Covered by Injunction of the Farmworker Protection Rule" and the related information collection and retention requirements (Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control Number 1205-0562), which covers Forms ETA-9142A, Application for H-2A Temporary Employment Certification; ETA-9142A, Appendix A, Assurances and Obligations; ETA-9142A, Final Determination: H-2A Temporary Labor Certification Approval; ETA-790, Agricultural Clearance Order; ETA- 790A, H-2A Agricultural Clearance Order; ETA-790/790A, Addendum A, Additional Crops or Agricultural Activities; ETA-790/790A, Addendum B, Additional Worksite and/or Housing Information; ETA-790B, (Non- Criteria) Agricultural Clearance Order; and related form instructions. This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

DHS, in consultation with DOL, is exercising time-limited Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 authority and increasing the total number of noncitizens who may receive an H-2B nonimmigrant visa by up to 64,716 for the entirety of FY 2025. These supplemental visas will be distributed in four allocations throughout the fiscal year. This rule reserves 20,000 of these visas for nationals of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, or Costa Rica. All visas will be available only to businesses that are suffering or will suffer impending irreparable harm, as attested by the employer. In addition, DHS is again providing temporary portability flexibility.

The Acting Secretary of Labor signed the annual certifications under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, thereby enabling employers who make contributions to state unemployment funds to obtain certain credits against their liability for the federal unemployment tax. By letter, the certifications were transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury. The letter and certifications are printed below.

In accordance with the Memorandum of Uniform Standards for Tribal Consultation issued on November 30, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL or the Department) announces a formal Tribal Consultation. The Tribal Consultation will be convened by DOL's Employment and Training Administration (ETA), specifically the Office of Apprenticeship (OA) and the Office of Workforce Investment (OWI), to discuss opportunities and access to registered apprenticeship programs for federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Nations (Tribal Nations) and ETA grants to Tribal Nations and Tribal organizations, and to invite feedback on proposed guidance that will provide guidance for Tribal Nations seeking to register apprenticeship programs with the OA or a federally recognized State Apprenticeship Agency. DOL also announces an optional pre-consultation webinar. This optional webinar will offer Tribal Nation leaders or their proxies an overview of OA and OWI programming, as well as time to answer technical questions on the areas relevant to the Tribal Consultation to help prepare for a substantive discussion in the Tribal Consultation.

Pursuant to section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), as amended, and section 166(i)(4) of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), notice is hereby given of the next meeting of the Native American Employment and Training Council (NAETC or Council), as constituted under WIOA.

The Department of Labor (DOL) will be submitting the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for emergency review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). DOL is requesting OMB approve this emergency revision by September 12.

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, "Short-Time Compensation (STC) Grants." This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, "Statement of Expenditures and Financial Adjustments of Federal Funds for Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees and Ex-Servicemembers Report." This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, "Alien Claims Activities Report." This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension, with no changes, of the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, "ETA Financial Report Form ETA- 9130." This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension, with changes, for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, "Claims and Payment Activities." This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

This notice announces allotments for PY 2024 for the Indian and Native American (INA) Programs.

The Employment and Training Administration of the Department of Labor (DOL) is issuing this notice to announce updates to the Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWR) for the employment of temporary or seasonal nonimmigrant foreign workers (H-2A workers) to perform agricultural labor or services other than the herding or production of livestock on the range. AEWRs are the minimum wage rates DOL has determined must be offered, advertised in recruitment, and paid by employers to H-2A workers and workers in corresponding employment so that the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States (U.S.) similarly employed will not be adversely affected. In this notice, DOL announces the AEWRs based on wage data reported by DOL's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey. The AEWRs established in this notice are applicable to H-2A job opportunities classified: in Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes other than the six SOC codes comprising the field and livestock workers (combined) group, and in the field and livestock workers (combined) occupational group that are located in States or regions, or equivalent districts or territories, for which the United States Department of Agriculture's Farm Labor Report (better known as the Farm Labor Survey, or FLS) does not report a wage.

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, "Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund Activities Reports." This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

This Notice announces the revised administrative formula methodology that ETA uses to distribute annual allotment funding to State grantees (53 State Workforce Agencies (SWAs)) for the purpose of administering the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC). Additionally, this Notice formally communicates the substantial changes to the administrative formula and announces the actualized State allotments for fiscal year (FY) 2024, the revised formula's implementation year, based on Congress' budgetary appropriations.

Notice is hereby given that the Workforce Information Advisory Council (WIAC or Advisory Council) will meet virtually June 26 and 27, 2024. Information for public attendance at the virtual meetings will be posted at www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/wioa/wiac/meetings several days prior to each meeting date. The meetings will be open to the public.

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, "Characteristics of the Insured Unemployed." This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

This notice announces allotments for PY 2024 for WIOA Title I Youth, Adult, and Dislocated Worker Activities programs; allotments for Employment Service (ES) activities under the Wagner-Peyser Act for PY 2024, and the allotments of Workforce Information Grants to States for PY 2024. WIOA allotments for states and the state allotments for the Wagner-Peyser Act ES are based on formulas defined in their respective statutes. WIOA requires allotments for the Outlying Areas to be competitively awarded rather than based on a formula determined by the Secretary of Labor (Secretary) as occurred under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). However, for PY 2024, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 waives the competition requirement, and the Secretary is using the discretionary formula rationale and methodology for allocating PY 2024 funds for the Outlying Areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the United States Virgin Islands) that was published in the Federal Register (Feb. 17, 2000). WIOA specifically included the Republic of Palau as an Outlying Area, except during any period for which the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Education determine that a Compact of Free Association is in effect and contains provisions for training and education assistance prohibiting the assistance provided under WIOA; no such determinations prohibiting assistance have been made. The formula that the Department of Labor (Department) used for PY 2024 is the same formula used in PY 2023 and is described in the section on Youth Activities program allotments. The Department invites comments only on the formula used to allot funds to the Outlying Areas.

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning the proposed extension of the information collection request (ICR) for the "Labor Condition Application for Nonimmigrant Workers" and "Nonimmigrant Worker Information Form"; and related information collection and retention requirements (OMB Control Number 1205-0310), which covers Form ETA-9035, Form ETA-9035E (electronic), Form ETA-9035 & 9035E, Appendix A, Form ETA-9035CP, General Instructions for the 9035 & 9035E, and Form WH-4. This action seeks an extension of the forms without changes. This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of Labor (Department or DOL) is amending its regulations governing the certification of temporary employment of nonimmigrant workers employed in temporary or seasonal agricultural employment and the enforcement of the contractual obligations applicable to employers of these nonimmigrant workers. The revisions in this final rule focus on strengthening protections for temporary agricultural workers and enhancing the Department's capabilities to monitor program compliance and take necessary enforcement actions against program violators.

Title I of WIOA requires the U.S. Secretary of Labor (Secretary) to update and publish the LLSIL tables annually, for uses described in the law (including determining eligibility for youth). WIOA defines the term "low-income individual" as (inter alia) one whose total family annual income does not exceed the higher level of the poverty line or 70 percent of the LLSIL. This issuance provides the Secretary's annual LLSIL for 2024 and references the current 2024 Health and Human Services "Poverty Guidelines."

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed revision for information collection request (ICR) titled, ``YouthBuild Work Site Description and Housing Census.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of Labor (DOL), Employment and Training Administration is soliciting comments regarding a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Tax Performance System.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The U.S. Department of Labor (Department) published the Wagner-Peyser Act Staffing rule on November 24, 2023. In that rulemaking document, the Department inadvertently removed the definition of State Workforce Agency (SWA) official. The Department is correcting the regulatory text to align with the preamble description of retaining the definition of State Workforce Agency (SWA) official. This document corrects the final regulations that became effective January 23, 2024.