National Agricultural Workers Survey
The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (DOL/ETA) is seeking qualified contractors that can administer the Employment and Training Administration's (ETA) National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), a national random survey of the employment, demographic, and health characteristics of hired crop farm workers. When submitting your response, please provide a list and description of survey research activities to demonstrate how the firm meets the criteria. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541611, Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services. SMALL BUSINESSES ARE ENCOURAGED TO RESPOND. Include whether or not you are a small business; HUBZone small business; service-disabled, veteran-owned small business; 8(a) small business; woman-owned small business; or small disadvantaged business in order to assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible.
The Federal Government has collected information on the demographic and employment characteristics of hired farm workers since the 1940s. Until 1987, the Hired Farm Workforce Survey, a December supplement to the Current Population Survey, was used to collect the information from agricultural employers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture summarized the information in hired farm worker profile reports. In 1988, and as a result of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), the DOL assumed responsibility for collecting this information.
To comply with the IRCA mandate, which required annual estimates of the rate at which seasonal agricultural service workers exited the farm labor market, the DOL launched the NAWS, an establishment-based survey of hired crop farm workers. The NAWS questionnaire will be used to collect farm worker demographic, employment, and health information through in-person interviews with farm workers, over the contract period.
The primary purpose of the NAWS has changed since the IRCA mandate and annual estimates of the rate at which farm workers leave agriculture are currently not required. As such, farm workers are interviewed only once per year and no attempts are made to locate the same respondent in ensuing interview periods. There are three data collection cycles each year. The start date for the fall, winter-spring, and summer cycle typically occurs between the first and fifteenth of October, February, and June, respectively. Each cycle lasts approximately three months. As such, interviews are conducted on a nearly year-round basis.
Federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as private organizations utilize NAWS findings for a multitude of purposes, such as quantifying and assessing the human resources that are available to agriculture. The findings are also utilized in programs that aim to improve the well being of farm workers and their dependents. At the Federal level, these programs have included the National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP), Migrant and Seasonal Head Start, Migrant Education, and Migrant Health.
Since 1988, the DOL has collaborated with several Federal agencies to increase the utility of the NAWS, including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Administration for Children and Families, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Collaboration with Federal agencies will continue over the contract period.
The contractor will be responsible for carrying out the NAWS and delivering a variety of NAWS-based research products on topics relevant to the ETA and other Federal agencies that administer migrant and seasonal farm worker and related programs. Activities undertaken in this project include, but are not limited to:
• Using Unemployment Insurance data and other information sources to develop a sampling frame of agricultural employers;
• Using farm labor and agricultural production data from various sources to implement a multi-stratified probability-based sampling methodology;
• Developing and testing survey questions;
• Training interviewers to randomly select and interview between 1,500 and 3,000 farm workers per year;
• Developing and managing information for the construction of sampling and post-sampling weights;
• Managing, safeguarding, and analyzing data for the development and dissemination of research products, such as public-use and restricted-use datasets, reports, and on-line data tables; and
• Conducting appropriate statistical analysis and summarizing data in written, tabular, and graphic formats to complete deliverables.
The performance of the contract will involve access to confidential data, including data of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). These data are protected by law, including the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act. Protecting these data requires strong safeguards. In this particular situation, the ETA has decided within its discretion and in consultation with the BLS that all personnel who will handle the employer sampling frame data, which the BLS will provide directly to the Contractor, must be 1) direct-hire employees of the Contractor, and 2) agents of the BLS. As such, offerors who may be contemplating contracting portions of the work requirement that involve handling of sampling frame data, such as data collection, are hereby advised that further contracting for such purposes will not be permitted. Restricting the further contracting of tasks that involve handling the confidential data is necessary, after taking into account the safeguards needed to protect the data and the need for administrative convenience in implementing these safeguards.
All firms responding to this Sources Sought must demonstrate their experience in the aforementioned work. Pertinent factors for consideration of qualifications are the firm's demonstrated experience in the following tasks:
(1) Developing and implementing a statistical methodology for a national random survey of a difficult-to-sample population.
(2) Designing an information management system for survey research data.
(3) Collecting individual-level data on demographic, employment, and health characteristics through in-person interviews with non-English speaking populations.
(4) Obtaining relevant datasets and other information from various sources for the development of sampling frames for establishment-based surveys.
(5) Developing interview protocols, including field-level random sampling procedures under various workplace settings, and training interviewers on field procedures.
(6) Developing and testing information collection instruments.
(7) Interviewing a minimum of 1,500 respondents per year, in-person, throughout the continental United States.
(8) Developing documents to support the Paperwork Reduction Act clearance process with the Office of Management and Budget for data collection activities.
(9) Obtaining appropriate reviews and approvals for the handling and securing of confidential and personally identifying information in the context of a survey research project, including in the development of public-use and restricted-use datasets.
(10) Serving as the lead author for analyzing data and developing draft reports for the government's review and comment, and final reports suitable for public dissemination.
All interested parties are invited to submit a capabilities statement, to Jeffrey Brown, by March 1, 2018 by 2 p.m. EST. Electronic copies of capability statements are preferred and may be emailed to brown.jeffrey@dol.gov with NAWS-1630DC-18-N-00019 in the Subject Line. The response must be specific to each of the tasks listed above to demonstrate that the respondent is capable. The submittals shall not exceed 10 pages, TOTAL. A determination by the Government to proceed with the acquisition as a set-aside is within the discretion of the Government. Please be advised that telephone inquiries Will Not be accepted. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL.
Jeffrey Brown, Phone 2026933159, Email brown.jeffrey@dol.gov
