Note to Reviewer - 1220-0157

January 20, 2026

MEMORANDUM FOR Reviewer of 1220-0157

FROM Keenan Dworak-Fisher

Director, Division of National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS)

Bureau of Labor Statistics

SUBJECT Nonsubstantive Change Request for Round 22 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97 (NLSY97)

BLS requests OMB approval to adjust its plan for fielding the NLSY97 Round 22 interviews. The proposed adjustment entails shortening the originally planned fielding period to approximately 6 months and limiting the mode of contact to telephone-only.

While the last several collections of the NLSY97 have been conducted over a 10-12 month period starting in the Fall, the revised approach to Round 22 will condense the fielding period to occur between March 2026 and August 2026. Accordingly, we will amend the schedule for offering “Final Push” incentives, so that it may begin 3 months into the fielding period instead of 5 months into fielding. Due to a relatively faster release schedule, we project that this incentive will reach a similar set of respondents to those originally targeted.

The last several Rounds of the NLSY97 were collected primarily by telephone (99 percent of Round 21 was collected by telephone), with a small amount of in-person follow-up. BLS will limit its collection of Round 22, as well as its respondent outreach efforts, to telephone only. Accordingly, we will forgo offering a token in-kind incentive to a segment of respondents.

In addition, because the adjusted schedule causes collection of the round to occur in 2026 only, we will make two small changes to the questionnaire:

1. to include both birth-year-1980 birth-year-1981 sample members in the module asking for information about their assets as of age 45 (instead of only asking birth-year-1980 sample members); and

2. to add one question asking all sample members about their earnings in 2025.

Combined, these changes have implications for the estimated respondent burden, both in the anticipated number of respondents (5,400 instead of 6,441) and the average interview length (73 minutes instead of 71 minutes). This entails a reduction in estimated burden costs, from $152,668.66 to $131,797.40.

The changes also entail a reduction in annualized costs to the Federal government, from $13 million to $11 million.

These proposed adjustments are documented in updated versions of Supporting Statements (Part A and Part B) for this collection, attached.

If you have any questions about this request, please contact Keenan Dworak-Fisher by telephone at 202-691-6308 or by email at dworak-fisher.keenan@bls.gov.

Attachment A – Revised Supporting Statement, Part A

Attachment B – Revised Supporting Statement, Part B