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How Did You Like Us in 2015?

by Oriane Casale
February 2016

The mission of the Labor Market Information (LMI) Office of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) is to collect, compile, and deliver high quality data and analysis about the state's economy. Our work supports Minnesota's businesses, its workforce and economic development system, and the workers of today and tomorrow. We gather, analyze, and disseminate economic data on Minnesota's business community, workforce, and job market. We also provide key economic indicators, employment projections, and regional and statewide industry and workforce analysis along with information aimed at helping individuals make informed career decisions. We believe that access to high quality, up-to-date labor market information has been instrumental in making Minnesota one of the strongest job markets in America and that it will continue to play an important role in our economic future.

To improve our information and services, we regularly summarize related information including customer type, information requested, and satisfaction level. We share this information with you in the hopes that it may be as helpful for you to see how others are using our data as it is for us in guiding how we can best supply the data.

The information contained in the summary comes from several sources:

  • Records of incoming telephone and email requests
  • Web statistics from our Google Analytics web tracking tool
  • Information from our mailing and email subscription lists
  • DEED's customer satisfaction survey

Information from our 2015 customer summary is included in this article as well as updates on projects we have undertaken and services we have improved during the past year.

LMI Information Delivery Methods

The LMI Office offers a number of delivery methods for the data and information we provide. These methods include, but are not limited to:

  • LMI Website: The majority of our customers access information directly from our website or Data for Job Seekers. We keep our website as up-to-date and complete as possible, so customers know that they are getting the most current labor market information available for Minnesota. Almost all of the releasable data and information that we produce are made available on our website. Web use statistics are provided below.
  • Analyst Services: Our telephone and email Helpline and Regional Analyst teams assist customers in finding and understanding LMI data and information. The Regional Analysts also provide presentations and training sessions, many geared toward workforce and economic development professionals, to a wide range of audiences. Consultation services and data extraction and analysis are also available on a fee-for-service basis. The Helpline can be reached by telephone during normal business hours at 888-234-1114 or 651-259-7384 or by email at deed.lmi@state.mn.us or go to the new Regional Labor Markets pages.
  • Electronic Notifications: Customers who want to know when publications and data are updated can subscribe for email updates in the footer of the DEED website where it says 'Connect with DEED'. These updates provide notification to subscribers when LMI data and publications are available.
  • Direct Mailing List: This list is for customers who want to receive one or more copies of Minnesota Economic Trends or Minnesota Employment Review in the mail.

Table 1 provides a snapshot of customer contacts we made over the past year. The majority of LMI customers accessed information from our website, but a significant minority received LMI services through other means.

Table 1: LMI Customers by Information Delivery Method, 2015
Type of Contact Contacts Number of Customers
Website 613,000 page views 362,000 unique page views
Telephone, email, mail requests 2,412 contacts 2,412 contacts
Presentations and trainings 272 presentations/trainings 11,000 audience members
E-Mail notification list 114,468+ notifications sent by e-mail 9,538 subscribers
Trends print magazine 3,340 magazines sent by USPS mail 835 subscribers
Source: DEED LMI Office, various sources

Accomplishments in 2015

During 2015 we continued to make enhancements, guided by the needs of our users, to content and navigation on the LMI pages of the DEED website.

We added a regional labor markets landing page to our "data" tab on the DEED website. This landing page has links to information and data on each region include the new Regional Profiles for both Planning regions and Economic Development regions. The Regional Blog, also available on these pages, keeps readers apprised of hot labor market topics in their region.

We have also been working to enhance the Career Profile tool with a complete list of training and education programs and WIOA certification. In collaboration with the Workforce Development Division, we developed a system to keep these data updated. They are now displayed in an Excel spreadsheet available on the selection page of Career Profile. Over the next six months pages will be added to the Career Profile tool to display these data seamlessly within the tool.

We helped design and have linked to CareerOneStop's new Business Finder tool built off Infogroup's employer database. This tool gives customers access to individual employer data by zip code and industry.

Finally, we devoted a whole, extra-long issue of Trends to the topic of racial disparities in Minnesota's labor market. This issue was planned after news that the 2014 American Community Survey data showed a sharp decline in income of black households in Minnesota. Governor Dayton asked us to provide information on the issue and in response we delved into the available data and pulled together a set of analysis covering employment and wages by industry, small business ownership, graduate outcomes, and demographic trends in Minnesota's workforce. We had three guest writers from the academic and workforce development communities to help provide context and policy recommendations.

Web Traffic

Bucking the conventional wisdom that 'people are afraid of data', our data tools are our most popular resource. Of 361,626 unique pageviews on the LMI website, our data tools accounted for 73 percent of the total (see Table 2).

Table 2: LMI Web Traffic, 2015
LMI Web Property Pageviews* Unique Pageviews*
Data Tools 481,778 262,499
Current Economic Highlights 38,705 30,195
Review 26,945 20,096
LMI Jobseeker Portal 20,288 15,868
Trends 17,008 12,954
NEW Regional LMI and Local Look Blog** 15,808 10,505
LMI Help 11,980 9,509
Grand Total 612,512 361,626

*A 'pageview' is counted every time a page is viewed or loaded. So if a user refreshes the page during a session, a second pageview is counted. A 'unique pageview' is counted once regardless of how many times the user loads the page during a session or visit on the website.

**Partial year results.

Source: Google Analytics

Our on-line publications Current Economic Highlights, Minnesota Economic Trends, and Minnesota Employment Review had a combined 18 percent of the unique pageviews to the LMI portion of the DEED website. Current Economic Highlights offers summary analysis of key data including wages, employment, unemployment, and unemployment insurance claims. Trends and Review are LMI's periodical publications available online and in print.

Last year we added an LMI Jobseeker Portal in the "For Jobseekers" portion of the DEED website in order to guide job seekers to LMI tools that we have built with them in mind. This is the fourth most popular way that customers have accessed LMI on the DEED website, accounting for 15,868 of the unique pageviews or 4.4 percent of the total.

Our most popular data tool is the Occupational Employment Statistics or OES tool which shows employment and wages by occupation and region in Minnesota. This information can help employers benchmark wages and can help job seekers and students explore careers. Table 3 provides the ranked list of data tools.

Table 3: Top LMI Data Tools Usage
LMI Data Tool Pageviews Unique Pageviews
Occupational Employment Statistics 88,751 44,736
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages 56,110 24,756
Occupations in Demand 50,418 29,889
Local Area Unemployment Statistics 48,705 24,194
Career and Education Explorer 47,738 25,143
Employment Outlook (Projections) 26,544 14,772
Graduate Employment Outcomes 26,002 14,533
Current Employment Statistics 24,404 14,341
Match Jobs to Experience 22,952 12,812
Job Vacancy Survey 20,015 8,366
Cost of Living in Minnesota 12,632 10,171

LMI Customer Satisfaction

Each year we examine information on LMI customer satisfaction from the DEED-wide Customer Satisfaction Survey and the Regional Analyst customer feedback and satisfaction survey that was developed during PY2013. The results are for the period from October 2014 to September 2015.

These results are for the overall LMI Office and represent two user groups: employers who posted job orders and employers who were visited by DEED business service representatives. Results show a high level of satisfaction: 97 percent were satisfied that the information was presented in a clear and understandable manner, 99 percent were satisfied with the time it took to respond, and 97 percent used the information to make a decision.

On the lower end, only about 83 percent thought it was easy to find the labor market information that they were looking for. This is up from 78 percent last year, implying that the changes we've made to website navigation have improved customers' ability to find the information they were looking for. We will continue to work on this.

Over this period contacts were extremely satisfied with the consultations that the LMI regional analysts provided, with almost all the key survey questions showing high levels of satisfaction. Overall, 90 percent of respondents would definitely recommend a LMI regional analyst to a colleague who needed specific information about labor market data or statistics and another 8 percent would probably recommend them. Moreover 65 percent of the survey respondents used the information they received from a Regional Analyst to help them make a decision.

  • 96 percent responded 'very well' or 'well' that the LMI regional analyst understood what they were asking for
  • 98 percent were 'very satisfied' or 'satisfied' that the information was presented in a clear and understandable manner
  • 97 percent were 'very satisfied' or 'satisfied' that the product prepared by the LMI regional analyst was useful to them/a client/their organization

Overall, these results show that while LMI customers are able to obtain much of the information they need from our website, contact with our Regional Analysts improves their experience. That is likely because the RAs are able to help them find and understand geo-specific information most useful to them and do it one on one.

We always welcome comments and feedback on our products and services. You can email us at DEED.lmi@state.mn.us or telephone us at our helpline: 651-259-7384.

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