Dec 15 -- The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Department of Labor, is soliciting new members for the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to address four member terms expiring on April 13, 2024, and any additional vacancies that may occur on the TAC between the date of publication of this notice and April 13, 2024. Nominations for the TAC membership should be transmitted by January 16, 2024.
The TAC provides advice to the Bureau of Labor Statistics on technical aspects of data collection and the formulation of economic measures and makes recommendations on areas of research. On some technical issues, there are differing views and receiving feedback at public meetings provides BLS with the opportunity to consider all viewpoints.
The Committee consists of approximately 16 members who serve as Special Government Employees. Members are appointed by the BLS and are approved by the Secretary of Labor. Committee members are experts in economics, statistics, data science, and survey design. Members typically have Ph.D.s in their field and have significant experience. They are prominent experts in their fields and recognized for their professional achievements and objectivity. The economic experts will have research experience with technical issues related to BLS data and will be familiar with employment and unemployment statistics, price index numbers, compensation measures, productivity measures, occupational and health statistics, or other topics relevant to BLS data series. The statistical experts will have experience with sample design, data analysis, computationally intensive statistical methods, non-sampling errors or other areas which are relevant to BLS work. The data science experts will have experience compiling, modeling, analyzing, and interpreting large sets of structured and unstructured data. The survey design experts will have experience with questionnaire design, usability, or other areas of survey development. Collectively, the members will provide a balance of expertise in all of these areas.
BLS invites persons interested in serving on the TAC to submit their names for consideration for committee membership. Typically, TAC members are appointed to three-year terms, and serve as unpaid Special Government Employees.
The Bureau often faces highly technical issues while developing and maintaining the accuracy and relevancy of its data on employment and unemployment, prices, productivity, and compensation and working conditions. These issues range from how to develop new measures to how to make sure that existing measures account for the ever-changing economy. BLS presents issues and then draws on the specialized expertise of Committee members representing specialized fields within the academic disciplines of economics, statistics and data science, and survey design. Committee members are also invited to bring to the attention of BLS issues that have been identified in the academic literature or in their own research.
The TAC was established to provide advice to the Commissioner of Labor Statistics on technical topics selected by the BLS. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to providing comments on papers and presentations developed by BLS research and program staff, conducting research on issues identified by BLS on which an objective technical opinion or recommendation from outside of BLS would be valuable, recommending BLS conduct internal research projects to address technical problems with BLS statistics that have been identified in the academic literature, participating in discussions of areas where the types or coverage of economic statistics could be expanded or improved and areas where statistics are no longer relevant, and establishing working relationships with professional associations with an interest in BLS statistics, such as the American Statistical Association and the American Economic Association.
TAC:
https://www.bls.gov/advisory/tac.htm
FACAdatabase:
https://www.facadatabase.gov/FACA/s/FACACommittee/a10t0000001gzqMAAQ/com000433
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-27538