Labour Market Information provides the knowledge and understanding of how the labour market functions and is crucial for making sense of changing economic circumstances. It can also help when thinking about what the future might hold, so can support career decision making.

LMI can tell us which industries are growing and declining, about how industries and job roles vary across the country and about the industries and job roles in your area. It helps you see what the requirements are to work in an industry, the qualifications, or routes to being employed (apprenticeship, degree, GCSEs, A Levels, etc.). You can see salary information and how many vacancies there are in each industry. LMI can identify ‘skills gaps’, where there aren’t enough people with the right qualifications or experience to do particular jobs and forecast future demand for job types and skills. LMI can also help to challenge stereotypes, to ensure doors are opened for people.

So, what does this mean for you?

LMI can help you see if the career you want will still be around when you are older or even help you decide what career you should think about. You can see whether the job you want is in your geographical area or that you may have to move away to do it. It will help you choose which qualifications to take. LMI can show you how jobs are changing and, if you’re thinking about running your own business, it will give you an idea about your competition and chances of success.

A typical piece of LMI is that 78% of those who worked from home said that being able to work from home gave them an improved work life balance in February 2022. This demonstrates how working life has changed during the pandemic and also how it affects the individual. (By the time you read this, this data be will be out of date, so it’s important to look at LMI from time to time.) *Office for National Statistics – Business Insights and Conditions 2022.

Through using LMI, we can also see how the labour market has changed over time. For example, it used to be lower paid workers who worked longer hours than higher paid workers, but now it is the other way round; if you have a high wage, you will most likely work long hours. Colleges and universities often use LMI to help decide which courses are relevant to their local and regional need.

This is particularly relevant following the pandemic when many industries have rethought how they are working. Some may struggle to recover, whereas others might do really well and differently than they would have done under ‘normal’ circumstances. So, keep an eye on labour market information when researching the careers you think you are right for you.

Where to find LMI? https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket