Kansas Labor Market Information System: A Technical Note

Abstract

State and local planners, policymakers, and analysts often complain that available Kansas labor market data is incomplete and inadequate for their purposes. Their complaint is legitimate; in fact, the state and local labor markets are data deficient, and the data which is available, though very useful, is dispersed and not readily accessible.

This disorganized data makes it difficult for the planner and analyst interested in a particular set of data to determine its existence and, if it exists, its location. Further, even with the expenditure of a significant amount of effort, no guarantee exists that the searcher will locate all the available data. As a result, considerable time, energy, and resources are wasted solely in the data search. In summary, the current unorganized approach to labor market data collection and dissemination has proven to be both inefficient and ineffective.

This is a problem to all state and local jurisdictions. To deal with the problems faced by those seeking labor market data in Kansas, the Institute for Economic and Business Research (IEBR) is developing a Kansas labor market information system (LMIS) as part of its ongoing labor market research program. This information system will provide a coherent structure to the existing Kansas labor market data by listing all available data sources in one repository. By so doing, the search for data will be enormously simplified: all that the labor market data searcher needs to do is use the information system to find a convenient location for those sources which contain the needed data. In addition to helping the researcher find and properly use the collected data, IEBR's system also will help the researcher identify the weaknesses of the existing data, thereby encouraging the acquisition and development of new data bases detail.