Understanding the market:Using LMI

Hilary Stevens, ResearcherMarchmont Observatory

www.marchmont.ac.uk

Marchmont Observatory

What is Labour Market Information?

“LMI 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.”Source: The Scottish Government

LMI includes both labour market information (descriptive data such as statistics or survey results) and labour market intelligence (analysis, interpretation, conclusions and policy recommendations).

Topics include:

• economic and labour market conditions;

• education, qualifications, training and skills;

• current and future demand and supply of labour and jobs; and

• vacancies and recruitment.

Sources of LMI• “Intelligent Networking” - obtained directly from

employers• Official statistics - Surveys undertaken by the Office for

National Statistics or administrative data from Government departments (e.g. Jobcentre Plus)

• Other surveys or administrative sources – e.g. policy or academic research, client information

• Projections and forecasting – e.g. “Working Futures”• Other research and evaluation reports• Policy and strategy documents

Using LMI in employer engagement

• Understanding the business or organisation

• ‘Speaking the same language’

• Building credibility and trust

• Clear idea about what the institution can do to help and the benefits

Other uses for LMI

Employer engagement• Aid benchmarking• Monitor and evaluate

employer engagement strategies

• Demonstrating justification for bids for external funding

Other uses:• Aid strategic planning

processes and decisions• Informing operational and

business planning• Inform and evaluate new

initiatives• Inform provision of careers

advice to students• Aid strategic marketing and

promotion and targeting of services

Challenges of using LMI

• Sharing information from “Intelligent Networking”

• Short shelf-life and fast moving agendas

• Validity and reliability of survey data

• Accessing information• Capacity and capability to

create intelligence• Generalisability of broad

trends for employers

Project Resources• LMI and Employer Engagement Report• Template for gathering information

from employers• Guidance on developing and using

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems

• Guidance on using LMI to support employer engagement

• LMI Handbook