To maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of evidence-based investments, in coordination with federal government, states should create and maintain high-quality, integrated state and local workforce data systems. The federal government’s role in making this possible includes:

a. Harnessing the potential of modernized Unemployment Insurance (UI) data systems to inform workforce investments. UI employment and claims systems should gather additional data that the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics can use to provide timely and granular labor market indicators and forecasts. This will improve the ability of the workforce development system to match supply of skills to demand, as well as to track wage and employment outcomes by program and provider;

b. Ensuring that states and localities have the best available public- and private-sector labor data to help stakeholders make well-informed career and training decisions. The result of the rapidly changing nature of job skills is that time-tested data sources such as O*NET are often not fast or granular enough to be actionable. Modern labor market information should combine information from UI records (see above) with newer data sources such as big data analysis of job postings and skill demands for use by training providers and workforce agencies;

c. Increasing transparency of outcomes, including by providers of training services and for the individuals who participate in training programs. Modernized UI system data must be tapped to make program evaluations more timely, comparable, comprehensive, and cost-effective;

d. Improving the comparability of labor market information and reducing the reporting burden on employers by encouraging public-private collaboration to develop and adopt interoperable schema for employment and learning records; and

e. Expanding partnerships between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and relevant federal agencies, as well as private-sector partners, to improve the collection and reporting of real-time labor market data and supply and demand for specific skills. This would require legislation to lift barriers to sharing administrative data among statistical agencies. Legislation should include a provision for the co-development of an open data infrastructure that enables broader data sharing to better assess the skills needed within specific sectors, industries, and geographies.