by Oriane Casale
November 2018
The mission of the Labor Market Information (LMI) Office of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) is to collect, compile, and deliver high quality data and analysis about the state’s labor markets and economy. Our work supports Minnesota’s businesses, its workforce and economic development system, and the workers of today and tomorrow.
To improve our information and services, we regularly summarize related information including customer type, information requested, and satisfaction level. We share this information with you in the hopes that it may be as helpful for you to see how others are using our information as it is for us in guiding how we can best supply the information.
The information contained in this summary comes from several sources:
Information from our 2017 customer summary is included in this article as well as updates on projects we have undertaken and services we have improved during the past year.
The LMI Office offers a number of delivery methods for the data and information we provide. These methods include, but are not limited to:
Table 1 provides a snapshot of customer contacts we made over the past year. The majority of LMI customers accessed information from our website, but a significant minority received LMI services through other means.
| Table 1. LMI Customers by Information Delivery Method, PY 2017 (July 2017 to July 2018) | |
|---|---|
| Type of Contact | Number of Customers |
| Website | 484,805 unique page views |
| Telephone, email, mail requests | 2,320 contacts |
| Presentations and trainings | 338 presentations/trainings given 13,000 audience members |
| E-Mail notification lists: LMI press releases, Trends, Review, and Local Look subscribers | 14,498 subscribers |
| Trends print magazine | 735 subscribers, magazine sent quarterly |
| Source: DEED LMI Office | |
Overall, LMI web traffic represented about 17 percent of all unique pageviews on the DEED website in PY 2017.
Bucking the conventional wisdom that 'people are afraid of data', our data tools are our most popular resource, comprising 30% of LMI unique pageviews (see Table 2).
| Table 2. LMI Web Trafic, PY 2017 | |
|---|---|
| LMI Web Property | Unique Pageviews* |
| Data Tools | 141,857 |
| Current Economic Highlights | 30,512 |
| Review | 29,021 |
| Trends | 21,145 |
| LMI Jobseeker Portal | 14,626 |
| Regional LMI and Local Look Blog | 11,709 |
| LMI Help | 5,547 |
| *A 'unique pageview' is counted once regardless of how many times the user loads the page during a session or visit on the website. | |
| Source: Google Analytics | |
Our on-line publications - Current Economic Highlights, Minnesota Economic Trends, Minnesota Employment Review, and Regional LMI, which includes the Local Look blog - had a combined 18 percent of the unique pageviews to the LMI portion of the DEED website. Current Economic Highlights offers summary analysis of key data including wages, employment, unemployment, and unemployment insurance claims. Trends and Review are LMI's regular publications available online and in print.
Table 3 provides the list of LMI's top five data tools. Our most popular data tool is the Career and Education Explorer, DEEDs main career exploration tool, which lets you explore a wide range of occupations and related education. Find wages, demand, job opportunities, and more as well as links to the Eligible Training Provider listings including WIOA-certified trainings.
| Table 3. Top Five LMI Data Tools by Usage | |
|---|---|
| LMI Data Tool | Unique Pageviews |
| Career and Education Explorer | 41,106 |
| Cost of Living in Minnesota | 32,102 |
| Employment Outlook (Projections) | 24,575 |
| Occupational Employment Statistics | 18,094 |
| Local Area Unemployment Statistics | 17,886 |
The Cost of Living Tool provides a yearly estimate of the basic-needs cost of living in Minnesota by county, region, and total state.
The Employment Outlook data tool shows one-year and 10-year projections of employment growth or decline by occupation and industry for Minnesota's regions, total state, and for the U.S.
The Occupational Employment Statistics or OES tool shows employment and wages by occupation and region in Minnesota. This information can help employers to benchmark wages and can help job seekers be better informed when applying for jobs.
Local Area Unemployment Statistics include the statewide as well as regional unemployment rates, labor force size, and participation rates among other data.
Each year we examine information on LMI customer satisfaction from the Regional Analyst Customer Consultation Satisfaction Survey.
In 2017 contacts were extremely satisfied with the consultations that the LMI regional analysts provided, with almost all the key survey questions showing high levels of satisfaction.
During 2017 and 2018 we continued to make enhancements, guided by the needs of our users, to content and data tools on the LMI portion of the DEED website.
The LMI Regional Analysts have continued to refine the Regional Labor Market Portal based on customer feedback. Additional content added in PY2017 included regional Health Care and Social Assistance industry profiles.
We updated the national education requirements for occupations based on data and information for Minnesota. Minnesota educational requirements by occupation are now available on our website. The table also shows the distribution of minimum education requirements listed by employers who responded to the state's Job Vacancy Survey, which was an important consideration when choosing the typical requirement for each occupation. Other sources used include BLS's Occupational Employment Handbook, O*NET data, Minnesota graduation data, Minnesota Statutes and Rules, and current accreditation requirements for many professions.
We try to build new or upgrade a data tool every couple of years. This past year we rebuilt the Occupational Employment Statistics data tool, which was the oldest in our suite of tools. The new tool allows users to make all selections on one page rather than going through a several-page-long query. It also allows users to choose regions from a Minnesota county map. The tool provides side-by-side comparisons by region of employment and wages for occupations. We also updated the detailed pages to be more flexible. Users can now switch between regions to compare employment and wages right on the detailed pages. We always find feedback useful so please email us any thoughts, including complaints, that you have about this tool, and we will do our best to make useful changes.
We always welcome comments and feedback on our products and services. You can email us at DEED.lmi@state.mn.us or telephone us at our helpline: 651-259-7384.
