State and Regional Roles in Using Data

State Role

States have important roles to play as both data users and data producers. As data users, states may use data to identify target industries or occupations for the state, to determine funding regions, and also to evaluate regional applications for funding. However, the state’s role as data producer is critical to regional sector initiatives both pre- and post-funding, as they seek to better understand and engage with their target industries. The examples below describe a wide variety of roles for the state in creating a sector strategy and fostering sector initiatives.

Using data to specify target industries and occupations for the state as a whole

Pennsylvania brought together key agencies to identify industry clusters in which the state likely had competitive advantages and long-term growth potential. The resulting analysis identified nine sectors, including advanced materials and diversified manufacturing, agriculture and food processing, building and construction, and financial services. Within these, the state worked with industry experts to identify priority occupations based on number of annual job openings, wage levels, growth rates, opportunities for workers to advance, and the projected number of workers in the pipeline. Using this information, the state created grants to provide incentives to regional partnerships around the state to create new career ladder and training programs that focused on their priority clusters and occupations.

In North Carolina, policymakers drew on reports developed by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research in targeting allied health care as the state’s initial sector of focus.

Providing data to regions to identify target industries and occupations

Michigan offered grants on a competitive basis to local partnerships but allowed each partnership to define its regional boundaries and identify target industries based on local data and analysis. To aid the regions in identifying their target industries, the state provided each workforce investment area with a regional profile for industry targeting.

Colorado produced an industry targeting report for each MSA in the state. The state LMI office also created a guide on how to access and use the state’s website to obtain data for industry targeting.

Washington published cluster analysis data for each of its regions.

Idaho produced an in-depth report describing critical industry sectors for each of five geographic sub-divisions in the state.

Providing data and analysis on specific industries statewide

Oklahoma produced detailed reports about two of the state’s targeted industries, Aerospace and Health Care.

Colorado produced guidebooks for five of the state’s key industries to be used as a resource for workforce practitioners and intermediaries as they design and implement sector initiatives in their regions. The guidebooks (Renewable Energy, Energy Extraction, Hospitality and Tourism, Healthcare and Transportation) contain data, information, resources and trends about the industry sector at the national and state levels.

Maryland produced industry profiles for several of its targeted industries: manufacturing, education, aerospace, bioscience, information technology, construction, healthcare, and hospitality and tourism.

Customizing data offerings to accommodate unusual geographic or industry clusters

Kansas & Missouri collaborated to produce an industry profile for a WIRED region that included counties in both states.

Oregon has a custom website for its WIRED region which includes data reports for each of the industry clusters targeted by that WIRED initiative.

Providing regional labor market analysts to assist regions

Minnesota has funded six regional labor market analyst positions to provide regions with accessible expertise, analysis services, training, and presentations on labor market information.

Regional Role

When issuing competitive funds, most states require RFP respondents to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the industry they are proposing to target.

• Michigan offered grants on a competitive basis to local partnerships but allowed each partnership to define its regional boundaries and identify target industries based on local data and analysis.
• In Illinois, regions used economic and workforce data to identify root causes of critical occupation shortages in the industries it selected.
• In Georgia, the recent RFP to award upwards of $500,000 per region required applicants to use workforce and economic intelligence in both the identification of their region as well as providing a baseline assessment of the region. Together these two factors were worth over one-third of the total funding criteria.

Once funded, local area initiatives often incorporate data products and services into their projects. State funds are often used by local areas to perform secondary data analysis, literature reviews, surveys via telephone, internet, or in-person, and focus groups or other data gathering meetings with employers. Some purposes for this research include:

• Analyzing supply-demand gaps
• Mapping industry career ladders and lattices
• Identifying skills needed for in-demand occupations
• Understanding the relationships between entry-level and high-level occupations along a career path
• Developing curriculum for high-demand occupations
• Identifying barriers to career mobility and advancement
• Determining whether jobs in an industry provide self-sufficient and family-sustaining incomes