Resources
Labour Market Information (LMI)
What is Career and Labour Market Information?
LMI is information about what is happening in a labour market. LMI tends to focus on the industries that are growing and declining. It provides information about the types and levels of jobs and the skills required and whether they are increasing or decreasing.
Why should we use Career and Labour Market Information?
To give us a better understanding of the career we are thinking of entering into in terms of how much money could be earned in a particular career, or what the 'hot jobs' will be when they leave education, what jobs will be on the decline. LMI can help to give some clarity and help you achieve your career goals.
LMI provides the knowledge and understanding of how the labour market functions and is crucial for making sense of changing economic circumstance. It can also help when thinking about what the future might hold, so can support career decision making.
How do we use Career and Labour Market Information?
LMI can be useful when considering what you want to do as a career. It can help you look at careers in different ways and consider aspects of the job which you may not have thought about before. It looks at trends and averaged and provides a general guide to jobs and the labour market. It allows you to learn about what a job involves day-to-day, allows you to see which jobs are growing or declining and makes you question if the job you were thinking of going into will be a job on the rise. It gives you an understanding of how much you might earn and if your skills and interests are relevant to a particular job. You can use LMI to see what jobs there are in your area.
However, LMI should not be the only factor when deciding what you want to do in the future. LMI does not tell you what to do, it is designed to give you a complete picture or a personal view.
Things to consider when looking at LMI:
- The labour market changes. You may have the most recent data available, but there is a delay between information being collected and processed. Jobs such as social media manager, drone operator or app developer did not exist several years ago. New jobs won't be reflected in LMI (and future jobs won't be there at all)
- Numbers are often rounded up or down and are not meant to be precise
- Think about exploring jobs with similar job roles. This is because the same job can have different names.
Use the button below to look at labour market information for a specific job.
What career is for you?
Do you know what career you want go into? Has it been the same one since you were young? Or are you someone who is really unsure?
Try the careers quiz below to narrow down the right career for you.
Use the links below to find out more information about a career you are interested in.
National Careers serviceCareer Pilot
Find a career linked to a subject you enjoy.
Further career resources
Bitesize CareersBarclays Life SkillsNational Careers Week 2023