Supervisory Economist/Statistician (Economics)

Summary

The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision making.

The position is located in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Field Operations.

This position is outside the bargaining unit.

This is an interdisciplinary position and may be filled either as an Economist or Statistician (Economics).

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Help Duties

The incumbent manages a branch within the Division of Compensation and Occupational Requirements Programs. Incumbent has responsibility to direct and provide technical guidance and leadership to professional subordinate employees in the following areas:

• Improving survey non-response; assisting branch Field Economists in developing strategies for obtaining participation from respondents critical to the NCS indexes, multiple BLS programs or which have complex pricing practices or initiation procedures; leading, training and mentoring others; explaining survey findings and data uses; providing guidance on CIPSEA and the BLS confidentiality policy; exchanging information on developments; making presentation to interested groups regarding survey results.
• Researches/directs research and contacts with companies that have complex structures, maintain highly sensitive/confidential records, and usually require highly placed corporate officers; approval before preparation.
• Ensures the quality of the data collected by all staff through a comprehensive data quality program consisting of observational interviews, re-interviews, and scheduled reviews for multiple surveys.
• Ensures that changes in survey techniques or design are well understood and properly and promptly implemented by staff.
• Participates in NCS, Employment Cost Index, developmental activities to better operationalize economic measures in the field as well as improve collection methodology for planning and directing the collection and processing of data from primary sources for the NCS, Employment Cost Index. The person in this position provides technical oversight of the survey, conducts analysis of survey data, and prepares technical reports.
  
  

The position is also responsible for:

• Directly supervising professional employees with a career ladder of GS-12, to achieve maximum efficiency while optimizing utilization of resources.
• Providing direction on all technical aspects of the survey to regional professional and support staff both in the collection and processing of data.
• Planning, developing, and conducting program specific training for professional and support staff.
• Evaluating staff performance and giving advice and instruction to individual employees on both operational and administrative matters.
  
  

Leadership of the Branch and the BLS goals and objectives are central to this position.

Help Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Must be at least 16 years old.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Candidate required to obtain the necessary security/investigation level.
• Subject to financial disclosure requirements.
• Requires a supervisory probationary period if the requirement has not been met.
• Requires a valid drivers license.
  
  

Qualifications

You must meet the Basic Requirements listed in the Education Requirements section and the Specialized Experience to qualify for Supervisory Economist/Statistician (Economics), as described below.

Basic Requirements:

Economist, GS-0110:

• Degree in economics, that included at least 21 semester hours in economics and 3 semester hours in statistics, accounting or calculus.
  
  

OR

• A combination of education and experience - courses equivalent to a major in economics, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
  
  

Statistician (Economics), GS-1530:

• Degree that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. Credit toward meeting statistical course requirements should be given for courses in which 50 percent of the course content appears to be statistical methods, e.g., courses that included studies in research methods in psychology or economics such as tests and measurements or business cycles, or courses in methods of processing mass statistical data such as tabulating methods or electronic data processing.
  
  

OR

• A combination of education and experience - courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance.
  
  

IN ADDITION TO MEETING THE BASIC REQUIREMENTS LISTED ABOVE APPLICANTS MUST ALSO MEET MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS TO BE CONSIDERED.

Applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level, GS-12, in the Federal Service.

Specialized Experience: This experience must have equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and ability to successfully perform the duties of this position. Specialized experience should include a thorough range of complex economic professional work and training. Specialized experience includes:

• Expert knowledge of collection and interviewing techniques for one of the National Compensation Survey programs, (the Employment Cost Index or the Occupational Requirements Survey), including technical requirements and collection methodology of the ECI or ORS programs.
• Experience in data collection and data collection procedures.
• Experience providing technical assistance and guidance in the collection, processing, estimating, analysis, and interpretation of data.
• Experience reviewing data and completing data quality reviews.
• Experience recommending changes in technical procedures, organization, staffing, and budget to improve program effectiveness and data adequacy.
  
  

For additional information, refer to the Office of Personnel Management Operating Manual for Qualification Standards, Group Coverage Qualification Standards for Professional and Scientific Positions.

Individual Occupation Requirements for Economist Series GS-110. Individual Occupation Requirement for Statistician Series GS-1530

Education

Any applicant falsely claiming an academic degree from an accredited school will be subject to actions ranging from disqualification from federal employment to removal from federal service.

If your education was completed at a foreign college or university, you must show comparability to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States and comparability to applicable minimum coursework requirements for this position. Click Evaluation of Foreign Education for more information.

Additional information

The mission of the Department of Labor (DOL) is to protect the welfare of workers and job seekers, improve working conditions, expand high-quality employment opportunities, and assure work-related benefits and rights for all workers. As such, the Department is committed to fostering a workplace and workforce that promote equal employment opportunity, reflects the diversity of the people we seek to serve, and models a culture of respect, equity, inclusion, and accessibility where every employee feels heard, supported, and empowered.

Refer to these links for more information: GENERAL INFORMATION, REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION, ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION, FORMER FEDERAL EMPLOYEES

As a condition of employment, all personnel must undergo a background investigation for access to DOL facilities, systems, information and/or classified materials before they can enter on duty: BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION

You may not be aware, but in the regulations for agency ethics programs, there are requirements for supervisors. Section 2638.103 of Title 5 of the CFR states: Every supervisor in the executive branch has a heightened personal responsibility for advancing government ethics. It is imperative that supervisors serve as models of ethical behavior for subordinates. Supervisors have a responsibility to help ensure that subordinates are aware of their ethical obligations under the Standards of Conduct and that subordinates know how to contact agency ethics officials. Supervisors are also responsible for working with agency ethics officials to help resolve conflicts of interest and enforce government ethics laws and regulations, including those requiring certain employees to file financial disclosure reports. In addition, supervisors are responsible, when requested, for assisting agency ethics officials in evaluating potential conflicts of interest and identifying positions subject to financial disclosure requirements.

Supervisory Financial Disclosure (If applicable): This position is subject to the confidential financial disclosure requirements of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-521). Therefore, if selected, you will be required to complete a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report (OGE Form 450) to determine if a conflict or an appearance of a conflict exists between your financial interest(s) and your prospective position with DOL. This information will be required annually.

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Based on agency needs, additional positions may be filled using this vacancy.

The Department of Labor may use certain incentives and hiring flexibilities, currently offered by the Federal government to attract highly qualified candidates. Click here for Additional Information. The Fair Chance Act (FCA) prohibits Federal agencies from requesting an applicant's criminal history information before the agency makes a conditional offer of employment. If you believe a DOL employee has violated your rights under the FCA, you may file a complaint of the alleged violation following our agency's complaint process Guidelines for Reporting Violations of the Fair Chance Act. Note: The FCA does not apply to some positions specified under the Act, such as law enforcement or national security positions.

All Department of Labor employees are subject to the provisions of the Drug-Free Workplace Program under Executive Order 12564 and Public Law 100-71.

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Bureau of Labor Statistics

200 Constitution Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20210

US