02 user procedures ears refiling
User Procedures for EARS Refiling
The Exportable Automated Refiling System (EARS) was designed to replace its predecessor, the BLS Annual Refiling Control System (ARCS). The system is intended to simplify the refiling process and to interface with the EXPO-QCEW system. It consists of both batch and on-line programs which are designed to provide an easy-to-use system of refiling activities.
The EARS system revolves around the Refiling File (known to BLS as the "Control File"), which contains records for accounts being refiled. The Lookup File stores several indicators related to the refiling process, including settings that cause the Micro File to be updated simultaneously with the Refiling File codes, refile, and verify year. An additional setting determines the maximum number of micro records to read on the EARF inquiry screen before the search is halted to prevent an on-line overload called a CICS "time-out" error. A NAICS Descriptions File contains the multi-line (up to 11) NAICS descriptions for accounts that are used to print the refiling forms. The Roll-up Parameter File stores selection parameters entered in EARN for Job 107D (Refiling Establishment List Report) to print a firm listing of refiling firms.
The annual industry refiling cycle (which is being internally sub-divided by quarter with BLS action) generally begins in October and ends in July. Since the refiling of all firms (except those that are under three employees, and are judged too small) normally occurs over a three year period, the first step in each year's process is to determine which firms are to be included in the current year's Refiling File. Typically, about one-fourth of all firms are refiled each year, enabling many firms to be refiled over the three-year period. Each year's refiling selection criteria are determined by the BLS National Office and hard-coded into the selection program of Job 100A (Refiling File Build). Though sometimes the selections can be based upon industry classification, most often records are selected based upon their FEIN (the Federal Employer Identification Number). When the FEIN is unknown, the U-I account number is used as a back-up. Certain digits from either field (FEIN or UIAN; e.g., the 5th and 6th FEIN digits or the 8th and 7th U-I digits) are used to form a two-digit test field. If this number falls within this year's selection basis, the record is included in the refiling. One year will use a range of 00 to 33, the next year will use 34 to 66, and the third year will select on 67 to 99. If a minimum employment level is utilized to bypass those otherwise qualifying records, this factor is enacted as well, as low employment levels also diminish an account's refiling priority. Records can also be bypassed if they have a specified number of quarters with reported zero employment.
These fairly simple rules are disrupted, however, when an industry revision is enacted. Revisions establish new industry codes and remove obsolete codes as deemed necessary by the Department of Commerce in conjunction with the Canadian and Mexican governments, since the NAICS codes must remain universally applicable for all three countries according to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Revisions to NAICS codes will occur every five years. After the initial release in 1997, there has been one revision in 2002, one in 2007, one in 2012, and yet another in 2017. Such revisions make it difficult to have any kind of time series analyses, since certain codes will vanish and others will appear over the course of time. Some will even reappear as the NAICS revision had originally disqualified the code, but later had reenacted the code.
Whatever the hard-coded parameter specifications may be, they are used by Job 100A to select records from the Micro File to create the Refiling File for the new year. Carryover records from the prior year's refiling can also be written to the new Refiling File; however, this has not been done for many years (carryovers are those accounts that had been refiled in the previous year, but failed to provide useable data). Carryover records that have become inactive on the Micro File for the processing quarter are not written to the new Refiling File, but are listed on a report. Job 100A deletes batch numbers and associated record counts from the Lookup File, used for the just-finished refiling cycle. This allows the same numbers to be used again the following year, without augmenting the record count in each batch number, overstating the values displayed on EARC and EARR.
Following the creation of the Refiling File, Job 113D (Distribution of Refiling Report (by EIN, etc.)) should be submitted to produce a report for the BLS Regional Office that verifies the State has selected the appropriate records for refiling. This report should be sent to, and approved by BLS, before preparing and mailing refiling forms to the employers. Since this process is done by BLS, however, this is another moot point; all States now used the Centralized Annual Refiling Survey (CARS) system. The selection of data for CARS processing is handled with Job 105D (Single and Multi Refiling Forms for CARS).
Updating the Refiling File with additions, changes, or deletions can be accomplished through batch or on-line means. Job 101D (Batch Update to Refiling File (From IRT)) processes Input Refiling Transaction (IRT) File records additions and changes to Refiling File records. These IRT update records would have to be written to the Input Refiling Transaction File by a State-specific program before this job could be run. On-line maintenance of the Refiling File is handled primarily through the EARC screen. New codes and address updates are input through this screen. The F4 key is used in this screen to toggle to and from the ES2C screen. The EARR screen is used for mass updates of response codes only where no other changes are required. Both of these screens allow the assignment of batch numbers for the refiling forms that are being processed; the latter only needs to be entered once. The batch numbers are posted to both the Micro File and Refiling File for reference. The forms can then be filed by batches to simplify locating them at a later date. The need to sort the forms by U-I numbers prior to filing has been eliminated.
Job 102D (Conduct Refiling File Edits) edits Refiling File records for consistency and validity of data. An exception report is generated to notify the user of invalid data or warning type errors. The error conditions are assigned to the Refiling File records as well.
A variety of needs may call for an on-line display of selected records in the Refiling File. The EARF screen provides a display of records based on a variety of selection criteria, including response codes, batch number, old or new codes, error status, employment range, etc. Refiling forms are prepared solely by the CARS center, and are not to be processed by the State.
TRS processing (for Touchtone Response System) was established as an easier avenue to refile some employers by phone replies (to indicate nothing has changed). Employers that are chosen must be privately owned single accounts with a valid county (and township for States that are using it), and NAICS code, with a valid PLA (Physical Location Address, not a post office box or out-of-State address) and non-matching, non-foreign MOA, and UIA (Unemployment Insurance Address) blocks. The selection process for these employers as far as eligible employers for the TRS would be by running the 111A (Create TRS Eligibility File and Report) job. Bringing in TRS data for the employer would be handled by the 108D (Load TRS Response File to the Refiling File) job.
The CARS system was developed as a means of assisting with the printing of the NVS (NAICS Verification of Single accounts), NVM (NAICS Verification of Multi-employers), and NCA (Non-Classified Accounts) refiling forms. The vendor will print the forms, stuff the envelopes (complete with State-specific inserts), mail the forms to the employer, then receive the filled out form. They then prepare the data for the State in a file that is sent first to BLS then to either the Service Center mainframe or, by EUS Direct, to the State. Job 114D (Load CARS Data (for CARS States Only)) which is actually two jobs - 114S for processing the NVSVM file (a combination of NVS and NVM data), and 114C to process the NCA file (this remains hidden to the user on the C-List process, other than the fact that they select the type of data that they will draw upon) then draws in the CARS data for updating the Refiling File directly. Multi accounts can also be processed by the 121D (Update Micro Data from ARS-Web Collected Data) job, which identifies the ARS-Web data that have been collected. Both of these save a great deal of staff time and represent the trend for BLS development in the future.
Address data, using the NCOA (National Change Of Address) File, is processed once per year with the 120A (Process CARS Change-of-Address File) job. TRS address changes can be added with the 122D (Insert Physical Address for CARS Accounts from input File) job as well, or removed with the 123D (Remove Physical Address for CARS Refiling Non-Response) job. The "undo" facility of the 123D job has not yet been used, but was established as a safeguard mechanism. [See what frequency after 2014 has been assigned to Job 122D; be sure that 123D has not yet been used.]
A monthly refiling status report must be produced by Job 106M (Prepare Survey Management Report/File Deliverable (Monthly)). This report, known as the Survey Summary Management Report (or SMR), summarizes statistics related to refiling activities, including counts of records being refiled and up-to-date response rates and includes comparable prior month data. The job produces both a file and hard copy report. Either the report or the file should be transmitted to BLS each month as a deliverable. Job 106D (Prepare Survey Management Report (On Demand)) prepares a comparable hard copy report for state staff to review and can be run at any time for internal use in evaluating the progress of the refiling activities. No deliverable file is produced with this latter job.
An equivalent form of this refiling status report also exists for the non-classified accounts. This report is produced using Job 119D (Unclassified Management Report and File) for an on-demand, or internal reporting basis. One significant difference between the NCA-based report and the standard Refiling Survey Summary Management Report is that the NCA report is much more simplistic in nature. There are only a few totals required, so the entire report can fit on a single page.
Job 107D will generate a hard-copy firm list report of records in specified categories. Selection parameters specifying the Refiling File records to be included on the report are entered in the EARN screen prior to submittal of this job. Job 115D (Non-Response Firm Listing) can be run at any time to produce a listing of Refiling File records that have not responded.
The remaining jobs are run near the end of the refiling cycle. Job 109D (Create Code Change Supplement (CCS) File) produces the annual Code Change Supplement (CCS) File for the CES staff to use in applying code changes to CES participants. Optional Job 110D (Produce Summary of Differences (SoD) Report) produces a Summary of Differences report, aggregating by macro cell (county/ownership/NAICS code) the employment and wage changes resulting from code changes between 4th and 1st quarters. Job 112D (Perform CCS Edits) is an optional job to perform the standard CCS edit. This is the same edit that is run by BLS on each state's first quarter EQUI. The State can run this edit against the Refiling File prior to finalizing and submitting the first quarter EQUI. The staff can then clean up CCS errors prior to submitting the EQUI deliverable. Another version of CCS (in this case, it is the Code Change Summary), is found in Job 118D (Produce CCS Master List), which prepares the list near the end of the refiling cycle.
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