Labour Market Information

What is Labour Market Information (LMI)?

LMI is designed to describe the supply and demand of labour so it gives you information about the condition of the labour market in the past and present, as well as giving future projections. It gives you an idea of the occupations that exist and what you would need to study in order to get into those occupations as well as the occupations that are most relevant in your locality or in a specific area of the country. You might want to only consider a job in the local area but you may find that being open to commuting or even relocating will open up a much wider choice of roles. Generally, cities will provide more jobs across a range of knowledge-based industries such as science, creative or finance but there are also clusters of jobs in specific sectors such as motorsports, life sciences, film and aerospace located across the UK.

Competition

Generally, there are fewer jobs around today that young people would typically access and together with people working to an older age, it can make searching for the ideal job difficult. It means there are more experienced people also looking for work and competing for the same jobs for which you will be applying. Today’s labour market is also a global one – countries like China, India and Brazil are producing highly skilled workers also looking for work and willing to cast their nets wide. You need to be the best you can possibly be and fully prepared to try and ensure you get into the career you want to pursue.

Pathways into jobs

The path that someone might take into a job is a lot less structured, and perhaps less obvious, than a decade or two ago. There are the ‘traditional’ pathways of A-Levels before moving on to University, these are still often the favoured routes for some professions, however, apprenticeships make a very good alternative route to higher level qualifications and there are other work-related training options into some careers for those preferring a vocational route over an academic one. It’s also a lot easier to switch between different types of qualifications, hopefully gaining that all important work experience – which employers value very highly – along the way.

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