Using Real-Time Labor Market Information on a Nationwide Scale

Real-time labor market information is an emerging web tool for tracking the extent and nature of employers’ demand for labor by occupation, industry, and geography. Real-time LMI vendors, both for-profit and nonprofit, regularly collect and aggregate job ads and analyze them to extract industry, occupational, skills, certification, wage, and geographic information.

Jobs for the Future’s Credentials That Work initiative is testing and evaluating the use of real-time LMI to better align postsecondary education and training programs with current labor market demand, particular at the community college level. While the initiative focuses on the uses of real-time LMI in local labor markets, it also seeks to understand the potential value of this data source to organizations with missions that are nationwide in scope, particularly federal agencies and national industry trade associations.

This brief explores the potential value of real-time LMI for these organizations based on interviews with their staff, including the:

• White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Federal Reserve Board of Governors
• Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor
• National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education
• National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation
• Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, House Science Committee, U.S. House of Representatives
• Small Business Administration
• Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor
• Manufacturing Institute, National Association of Manufacturers
• Center for Energy Workforce Development
• American Association of Community Colleges