Investing in Labor-Market Information (LMI): A Summary of the State LMI Improvement Grants.

摘要

Labor market information (LMI) plays a crucial role in ensuring a well-functioning labor market. In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) expanded the federal investment in states LMI systems as part of an overall strategy to create new jobs, save existing ones, spur economic activity, and invest in long-term growth. As part of the Recovery Acts funding for jobs in energy-efficiency and renewable-energy industries (also known as green jobs), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $50 million in state LMI improvement grants (referred to as LMI grants in this report), to 30 grantees, including 24 individual state workforce agencies (SWAs) and six consortia of SWAs. In September 2010, DOL's Employment and Training Administration contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to examine the implementation of the LMI improvement grants, broadly document the activities of all grantees, and provide a detailed description of the activities and partnerships of a subset of grantees. In this report, we summarize information about grantees goals, definitions of green jobs, partners and stakeholders, activities, products, and dissemination strategies. The report is based on a review of grantees statements of work (SOWs), quarterly progress reports, and information gathered from in-depth site visits with nine grantees. Grantees experienced challenges due to the short grant length, and administration issues, and as well as the evolving definition of green jobs. At the same time, they leveraged the LMI grants to enhance organizational capacity, develop a better understanding of the green economy, and disseminate findings to users, ultimately moving LMI forward at state and national levels.