What is Labour Market Intelligence?
Labour Market Intelligence is any quantitative or qualitative facts, analysis or interpretation about the past, present or future structure and workings of the labour market and the factors that influence it.
Labour Market Information is needed to inform users about:
- economic and labour market conditions;
- education, qualifications, training and skills;
- current and future demand and supply of labour and jobs; and
- vacancies and recruitment.
LMI includes both labour market information (descriptive data such as statistics or survey results) and labour market intelligence (analysis, interpretation, conclusions and policy recommendations).
Why do we need Labour Market Information?
Labour markets are increasingly volatile today. The idea of a job for life no longer exists. Technology is not only changing occupations with some disappearing and new occupations emerging but also the content of work. At the same time, the effects of the world economic crisis continue to be felt, with persistently high levels of youth unemployment in many countries.
In this situation access to detailed up to date information about the labour market is vital. this can include information about employment trends, data on the structure of the labour market and the way it functions, information about different occupations and training courses available as well as job opportunities and data focusing on equality and diversity.
Who uses it?
Labour market information is used by a wide variety of different professionals. These include careers counsellors, employment advisors, education and training providers, researchers and those responsible for planning and policy.
But its use is not limited to professionals. Young people thinking about their careers, people considering starting up businesses, unemployed people or those thinking about a career change all need labour market information.
Labour Market Information systems
Governments and other organisations are increasingly providing access to open data. This data can be used to design and develop powerful Labour Market Information systems, accessible through computers are even mobile devices and providing advanced visualisations of information at both national and local level.
But even with the best data and Information, interpretation and sense making remains critical. This is what we call labour market Intelligence.
Experiences
Pontydysgu has been working on Labour market Information for the last ten years, for a variety of clients. These include work on the UK LMI for All data portal, funded through the UKCES and the Department of Employment, designing systems for Careers Wales and other careers organisations and providing consultancy to the Government of Chile. As part of the European funded Employ ID project Pontydysgu have designed and developed LMI systems for employment advisers in the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) in the UK and for the Public Employment service in Slovenia. Pontydysgu have also collaborated with the DWP and other partners in the EmployID project in delivering online social learning programmes about using LMI in practice.
How you can benefit
We can offer a wide range of services around Labour Market Information. These include:
- Researching and negotiating data sources
- Designing and developing LMI systems, infrastructure, tools, portals and dashboards
- Consultancy and advice on the provision of LMI for different client groups
- Designing and delivering online and face to face courses about using LMI in practice
- Open educational resources on LMI
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