The Welsh Government is seeking to expand and broaden the use of LMI across Wales.
Labour Market Intelligence or LMI is a huge topic. Defined as ‘data, statistics and research about the workplace’, it includes things like skills requirements, employment and unemployment rates, salary and earnings, commuting distances, hours worked and demand for and supply of labour. Information is available on industrial sectors, occupational groups, business structure and on the size and growth of the working-age population. The scope and extent of LMI is indeed huge.
LMI is used in different ways by different people to inform their decisions and choices. For employers, it’s about investing in skills. For individuals, including young people and those providing careers advice, it’s about making informed decisions on career choices. For policy makers, it’s about determining future direction. And for providers, it’s about focusing support in the right areas. Each of these groups will no doubt be able to think of a number of recent examples of how they use LMI in their work.
Of course, it’s not just about information. To be of real value, raw data and facts need to be analysed and interpreted and often applied to particular situations.
A new project from the Welsh Government responds to the call for help to navigate the increasingly complex labour market and for easier, clearer and more directed access to the analysed and interpreted information.
Led by the Business and Skills Division of the Welsh Government’s Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the LMI project has two main objectives – first, to continue to develop the LMI base available in Wales and second, to improve communication of LMI in targeted and more digestible formats. The overall goal is to encourage greater usage of analysed and interpreted LMI and to enable users to make well informed decisions and better align skills supply and demand to market needs.
If you have any comments about the sorts of LMI you value in your work and how LMI has been of benefit to you, we’d like to hear from you. For this and further information about the LMI project contact Rachel Stephens, Senior Skills Policy Manager at the Welsh Government at rachel.stephens2@wales.gsi.gov.uk
