LMI stands for Labour Market Information. Although sometimes referred to as labour market intelligence, when we refer to LMI here we do not distinguish between the two.

LMI covers a broad collection of types of information on the labour market, employment, the world of work. For the purposes of the ‘information’ touched on in LMI Yorkshire, there are some both direct and immediate subject areas (like employment, unemployment, economic (in)activity, pay, redundancies) and more contextual ones like industrial or geographical information as they relate to those relevant industries and employers in the county and counties of Yorkshire.

LMI is very stats or “quants” driven, but it is important to make clear that evidence, data or ‘information’ can come in qualitative as well as quantitative forms. The bulletins will be stats based from the outset, but where available qualitative causal assessment will take place where possible. Just as importantly, where it is not possible, its desirability will be noted and described.

LMI Is approached in the following ways by various types of organisation.

The Department for Education (DfE) has a dedicated LMI For All web source which, in line with the education purpose of the DfE, concentrates more on skills and careers training rather than all forms of LMI which will include those things addressed more here and by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This came out of a report of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) which again was more skills focused.

The UK charitable organisation Youth Employment UK have a broader approach:

LMI stands for Labour Market Information. In short, it refers to any relevant information about the current state of the jobs market.

LMI can include information like:

• The industries and businesses that operate in a certain location.
• The types of jobs that exist and what they involve.
• How many of those jobs there are.
• The skills that are currently or will be in high demand.
• Commute and travel to work patterns.
• Typical rates of pay.
• Career progression opportunities.

LMI can be both quantitative (related to numbers and statistics), and qualitative (information and phenomena that can be observed but not measured). Quantitative LMI is usually based on studies and on data such as the Census, while qualitative LMI is based on interviews, anecdotes, press reports, networks, and so on.

This is not a bad approach either, minus the description of qualitative LMI as including anecdotal ‘information’. It is important to remember that all data and evidence must be critical and rigorous, and there is nothing more or less critical about qualitative data compared to quantitative; only that they are better for different things and are both invaluable used well together. One key difference is that statistical data cannot prove causality; it can point to it, but it cannot prove and evidence causal links between variable. This is what qualitative analysis does.

Going more local, Skills – Hull and East Yorkshire, which includes the now merged LMI Humber, describes LMI as “good quality information about what is happening now, and is expected to happen in the future, in the local, regional and national job market.”

One key difference from the different uses and understandings of LMI is the difference between individual application (for persons or organisations seeking work or workers) and macro-level analytical application (surveying a broader labour market and its trends). This site overwhelmingly will focus on the latter.