Emerging Insights into the Use of Labor Market Information in Postsecondary Education

Colleges and universities face multiple pressures intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, from declining undergraduate enrollment, to a quickly shifting job market, to calls for more accountability and transparency around how degrees connect to work. To understand and respond to these challenges and trends, colleges and universities are increasingly looking to labor market information (LMI)—defined as data about the job market, student outcomes, and
existing degree programs. LMI offers the possibility of making better decisions within higher education, in core areas ranging from program review, to academic and strategic planning, to recruitment and enrollment. At the same time, LMI is often new or newly accessible, so higher education practitioners may have limited knowledge of how to use it.

This brief explores findings and recommendations from a study that examined how and why 10 US colleges and universities use LMI, including five two-year colleges and five four-year universities. The recommendations address the types and costs of data sources colleges and universities used, the infrastructure needed to support LMI usage, and the challenges and benefits of using LMI. This brief and its recommendations can serve as a resource to colleges and
universities at any stage in the process of LMI institutionalization, whether they are just getting started using LMI or have fully integrated LMI into their institutions.

Ways Colleges and Universities Can Apply LMI

LMI can help colleges and universities meet both quality and equity goals. For example, institutions may use LMI to improve the quality of their programs and align them more closely with employer needs and students’ education and employment goals. They may also employ LMI to address equity issues, whether by preparing students of all backgrounds to enter the job market or by addressing workforce and economic needs in neighboring communities. To fully use LMI to advance both quality and equity, institutions should consider how to best apply LMI to their core activities, including in the following areas:

Program review, development, and improvement: Decision-makers may use LMI to support or reject ideas for new programs, improve or expand existing programs, or sunset programs. They may also use LMI to justify extra costs, such as funding for a new faculty member and supplies.

Alignment with employer needs: LMI enables institutions to examine trends in the job market, consider how employable their students will be after graduation, and align their programs more closely with employers’ job vacancies and skill needs. LMI indicators such as annual job openings and growth percentage can help colleges and universities align their program offerings and program enrollment more closely with current or future job vacancies. Two-year colleges in our study were especially focused on skills alignment due to requirements from outside funders and state policies.

Academic and strategic planning: Colleges and universities may use LMI as one of many tools and inputs to inform academic and strategic planning. Institutions in our study used LMI to prepare first-generation students to find jobs after graduation, to enhance quality of life after graduation for students from all backgrounds, and to address workforce and economic development needs in their communities.

Recruitment and enrollment: Institutions may use LMI to attract and recruit prospective students and stem enrollment concerns. Four-year institutions in this study, especially liberal arts colleges, were particularly concerned about enrollment declines and were interested in using LMI to communicate the value of their degrees to prospective and current students, parents, and the community. These institutions used LMI to build transparency by highlighting valuable skills students learned in liberal arts courses, including career-relevant skills as well as soft skills like problem-solving that help students succeed in many different career paths. At one university in this study, admissions staff used LMI to identify occupations in demand in target recruitment regions, link the skills needed for those jobs to specific programs at the university, and then promote those programs to prospective students early in the recruitment process.

External partnerships: Colleges and universities may share and discuss LMI with external partners, including employers, community partners, and state and system offices. Higher education institutions may use LMI to identify opportunities to partner with external groups, build relationships, and learn how to serve community needs. Colleges and universities may also collaborate with their partners to collect and disseminate data and develop and improve LMI practices.

Advising: LMI has potential value in student advising and career counseling, but these practices are still emerging. Advisors might use LMI to help students connect their career interests to jobs and think about developing transferable skills. They might also encourage students to pursue experiential learning and internships earlier in college. Advisors who want to incorporate LMI into their work currently face a lack of professional development opportunities and limited funding for advising licenses for data tools.

Grant applications: Institutions in our study, especially two-year colleges, often included LMI in grant applications to receive funding to develop new programs or support existing programs. Many funders require institutions to include LMI in their grant applications to demonstrate demand for their programs.