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Revised state unemployment data validation operations guide
Summary ETA sent states replacement pages for the unemployment insurance Data Validation Operations Guide, changing wage-item validation instructions in Chapters 11 and 12. The official letter’s PDF includes the revised pages. ETA still lists the change as Active, but the letter printed a December 14, 2012 expiration date; current applicability is unclear.
Document
Federal guidance
Agency
U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
Document number
UIPL No. 01-11, Change 1
Date issued
December 14, 2011
Status
Unknown
ETA lists this change Active as of 2026-10-24, but the letter prints an expiration date of December 14, 2012. Current applicability is unclear.
Status last verified October 24, 2026
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About this page: The full text below is the official document from U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA). Ezel adds the plain-English summary and tracks the document's status. The official source linked on this page is authoritative for any reliance.
2011/uipl_1_11_chg1_acc.pdf (https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/advisories/UIPL/2011/uipl_1_11_chg1_acc.pdf)
CLASSIFICATION
EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION Unemployment Insurance
ADVISORY SYSTEM CORRESPONDENCE SYMBOL
OUI/DPM
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
DATE
Washington, D.C. 20210
December 14, 2011
ADVISORY: UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PROGRAM LETTER NO. 01-11
Change 1
TO: STATE WORKFORCE AGENCIES
FROM: JANE OATES /s/
Assistant Secretary
SUBJECT: Revisions to the State Unemployment Insurance (UI) Data Validation (DV)
Operations Guide (Employment and Training (ET) Operations Guide 411)
1. Purpose. To transmit a revision of the State UI DV Operations Guide (ET Operations Guide
411).
2. References. ET Handbook No. 361, “UI Data Validation Handbook, Tax” (May 2011).
3. Background. UI DV is necessary to ensure that data reported by states that are used to
measure performance, for administrative funding allocations, for economic analysis, and for
other purposes are accurate and comparable across states. States are required to file a series of
standardized reports on their UI operations with the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and
Training Administration. Reports covered by DV are required on a monthly or quarterly basis.
The DV State Software facilitates the validation process and generates standardized outputs that
document the DV results.
4. Summary of ET Operations Guide 411 Modifications. All of Chapter 11 and part of
Chapter 12 of the UI DV Operations Guide have been revised to reflect the updates and
enhancements to the Wage Items function of the Tax application in the DV software.
5. OMB Approval. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the UI DV
data collection through July 31, 2014. The approval is OMB No. 1205-0431. The public
reporting burden for the collection of information has not changed.
6. Action Requested. Distribute the attached pages (Chapter 11, pages 75 through 79; and
Chapter 12, pages 83 and 91) to all holders of UI DV Operations Guide (ET Operations Guide
411), August 2010. Users should remove existing pages and replace them with the attached.
States should review these changes and adjust their procedures, as necessary.
7. Inquiries. All questions should be directed to the appropriate Regional Office.
RESCISSIONS EXPIRATION DATE
None December 14, 2012
8. Attachment. Revised pages of ET Operations Guide 411, “UI Data Validation Operations
Guide” (August 2010) Chapter 11 (pages 75 through 79); and Chapter 12 (pages 83 and 91).
Unemployment Insurance Data Validation Operations Guide
Chapter 11
Viewing the Wage Item Validation Screen in Tax
Wage item validation consists of verifying the accuracy of counts of wage record
transactions, which appear on the ETA 581 report. A wage record is the listing of
an employee’s wages in covered employment. Employers are required to report
this information to the State Unemployment Insurance program quarterly.
To validate wage items, a validator compares counts from the ETA 581 report,
(item 5 cell c14) with reconstructed counts produced under controlled conditions.
The validator tests that every wage record is counted and that the count does not
include corrections of previously reported wage records (counted twice),
incomplete wage records or duplicate records. A detailed explanation of wage
item validation is provided in Module 5 of the ET Handbook 361- Tax.
Instructions to enter wage item validation results into the software follow:
1 Select Wage Item Validation from the Other Validations box on the Tax
Selection Criteria screen and click View.
When you select Wage Item Validation, you will see the date when results
were last transmitted to the National Office at the bottom of the Other
Validations box. If you have not transmitted any results, the Last
Transmitted field will display “Never”.
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Unemployment Insurance Data Validation Operations Guide
2 Click on View to get to the Wage Item Validation screen.
If you have never entered results before you might get a screen with no
wage items.
3 Select the quarter from the Report Quarter drop down menu, then input
the year (year must be “YYYY” format) for the reporting period you want to
validate.
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Unemployment Insurance Data Validation Operations Guide
If you have previously entered results, you will see them and you can edit
or delete them. Wage items do not get overwritten when you load extract
files and are not dependent on any population.
4 To add a wage item, click on the Add Wage Item button located at the
bottom of the screen.
5 In the Add Wage Items for Validation pop up window enter the information
for the wage item you want to add and click Save.
Select the Mode Type from the drop-down menu. This is a general
description of the method or way your state received or “captured”
wage records that you are validating.
Enter the Mode. This is a brief description of the specific item you
are validating. If Mode Type is used more than once, each specific
Mode should have a unique name/description. For example, if
CD/Diskette is selected twice as your Mode Type, the Mode could
be entered as CD1 and CD2 with a brief description like CD1 – First
Month, CD2 Second Month.
Next, enter Sample Size, which cannot be zero or greater than 150.
If Sample Size is less than 150, the software will automatically fill in
the Cases Reviewed field with the same number as the Sample
Size. If 150 is entered as the Sample Size, then for the Cases
Reviewed field you must enter 50 if you are reviewing Stage 1 or
enter 100 if you are reviewing Stage 2. Refer to UI DV Handbook,
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Unemployment Insurance Data Validation Operations Guide
Tax (ET Handbook 361), Module 5 Wage Items, for more
information on when Stage 1 or Stage 2 are required.
Enter the recount for that category in the Validation Count field.
Enter the counts for the applicable time period that are reflected in
the ETA 581 Report in the Reported Count field.
When you save the item, the Wage Item Validation screen displays the
item added and calculates the Difference between the Reported Count
and Validation Count fields, and whether the item passed or failed
validation.
Repeat this procedure to ensure that you have validated wage items for
every mode your state’s employers used to submit them.
6 To update any field of a wage item other than the Mode Type and Mode
fields, click on the field box you want to edit and edit the field. Then click
the Save button at the bottom of the screen to save your changes.
You cannot update the Mode Type or Mode fields. Instead, you need to
delete the wage item and add a new one with the correct Mode.
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Unemployment Insurance Data Validation Operations Guide
7 To delete a wage item click on the Delete button next to the wage item,
located on the column “Delete Wage Item”?
A pop-up window will be displayed to confirm your request. Click OK to
delete the item or Cancel if you don’t want to delete it.
8 After you finish entering your validation results, click the Save button at
the bottom of the screen to save your work.
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Unemployment Insurance Data Validation Operations Guide
In both the Data Element Sorts and the Wage Item Validation screens,
only available in Tax, the Add Comments button is displayed at the
bottom of the screen.
Click on the Add Comments button to bring up Comments box.
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Unemployment Insurance Data Validation Operations Guide
Transmitting Wage Item Validation Results
You submit wage item validation results to DOL using the Transmit button at the
bottom of the Wage Item Validation screen. To transmit wage item validation
results follow the next steps.
1 Click on the Transmit button. The Transmit button is located at the
bottom of the Wage Item Validation screen.
Clicking the transmit button multiple times or closing the
application before the submission process is complete could
cause problems with your submission. Click only one time and
wait until you get the window saying “Wage Item Validation has
been submitted”.
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