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Principal
Data Sources
- Census
Bureau for data on population and business
activity.
- Bureau
of Labor Statistics for information on the labor force,
jobs, and wages.
- Bureau
of Economic Analysis for information on national income,
gross domestic product and industry wealth data.
- America's
Labor Market Information System
for labor market and occupational information.
- State
and Local Government Agencies which use these federal
data to produce custom reports and often conduct their own
LMI surveys.
- Private
Data Sources, particularly for information on specific
firms.
Principal Labor Market Information "Intermediaries"
- State
Data Center
- State
Labor Market
Information Agency
- Federal
Depository Libraries
- College
and University
Business and Economic Research Centers
- Chambers
of Commerce
- Industry
and Joint Labor-Management Associations
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- Who are the
major firms? Are
they large or small? Is ownership local or are they "branch" locations
of national or multi-national firms? Do they have a historic commitment
to the area? Are they active in the area's civic life (including participation
on the WIB)?
- What are the
current and projected labor needs of those firms?
Is labor demand growing or declining (and in each case, why)? What does
the occupational structure of each industry look like? What kinds of
skill needs does it have (and how many workers in each skill level)?
Is this structure changing (because of new forms of work organization
or new technologies)?
- What are the
labor market problems of those firms? Are there specific
skills shortages? Are some firms having real problems with turnover?
- What are their
hiring standards and what hiring mechanisms do they tend to use?
Do firms hire by word of mouth (referrals from their own workers especially)?
Do they have particular screening protocols? Do they require a specific
credential or level of education?
- What does the
wage structure of each firm/industry look like? Are
there lots of decently paid jobs or only a few?
- Which firms/industries
have internal career paths?
Does the industry have natural career ladders that workers can ascend
through on-the-job experience? Alternatively, do workers have to leave
the industry if they want to get ahead? Do they have to return to school?Are
there regular labor "flows" from some firms/industries to other firms/industries?
Do some firms or industries serve as informal training grounds for others?
- What are the
labor practices of these firms/industries? Do firms provide
full-time work? Benefits? Do they give workers some control over their
work and voice in the firm? Do they observe health and safety practices?
Do they provide workers adequate warning prior to layoffs?
- Which industries/firms
are unionized? And what are the relationships between the
firm/industry and its union(s)? Are there union-initiated workforce
development programs within the firm/industry?
- If the local
area is having trouble attracting industry, is the reason because of
perceived problems with the labor force? If so, what are
those perceived problems?
2. How would
labor leaders or a WIB get this basic lay of the land?
How would a WIB begin to sketch out this basic economic geography? There
are numbers of sources--both public and private of labor market information.
However, before embarking on a local labor market audit it is important
to know that many of the available data sets have serious flaws.
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