Finding useful labour market information

The LMI information presented on the Vitae website is drawn from a wide range of different sources. Researchers and analysts accumulate this information and relate different aspects together to provide meaningful data. Information about the labour market is used both to understand and analyse the local, regional and national economic climates, but also to provide a meaningful context within which individuals can make decisions about their life, learning and work.

Career and labour market information typically comes from:

• The UK Commission for Education and Skills, and the Sector Skills Councils, who have an official remit to produce industry-focussed LMI
• Government and local government (e.g. the jobs profiles provided by Job Centre Plus)
• University careers services (many conduct their own labour market research on their graduates)
• University research (e.g. the National Guidance Research Forum hosted by Warwick's Institute of Employment Research)
• Public sector bodies with a research remit (such as the Higher Education Statistics Agency or the Office of National Statistics)
• Information provided by businesses as part of their operation (such as the Bank of England's Agents' Summaries)
• Commercially collected or analysed information (such as the biannual Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) surveys). This information is often not freely available

For an individual seeking information to help with their career development it can be difficult and even bewildering to try and find information directly from these sources. This Vitae web section is intended to help you find and understand information that is appropriate for career development and is specifically tailored to the needs of researchers.