Investing in Labor-Market Information (LMI): Insights from the Recovery Act LMI Grants

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 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 Act 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 to 30 grantees, including 24 individual state workforce agencies (SWAs) and six consortia of SWAs. In September 2010, the DOL Employment and Training Administration (ETA) 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 provide an in-depth description of the experiences of 9 selected grantees and present lessons that may inform future efforts. This report complements Investing in Labor Market Information: A Summary of the State Labor Market Information Improvement Grants that summarizes information about grantees’ goals, definitions of green jobs, partners and stakeholders, activities, products, and dissemination strategies for the 30 LMI grantees.