One-Stop/Labor Market Information Priorities for
Developing Plan Narrative Instructions to States

 

Basic Objectives

Funds are being provided to the States under Wagner-Peyser authority for the development of core LMI products and services to support the America's Labor Market Information System (ALMIS) and One-Stop Career Services System initiatives. The Workforce Information Council (WIC), a product of Section 309 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, chose seven high priority objectives for this year, as follows:

States will be addressing these seven areas as funding priorities.

 

 

Current Status of State and Local LMI

Most States have made substantial improvements toward closing the gaps in LMI products and services that were identified in 1994; however, the state of the country's LMI infrastructure needs continual investment to maintain the high quality of State-level information. Additionally, the requirements of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 demand more and better localized data.

 

 

Available Funds

Funds to award these grants have been appropriated as part of the $100 million One-Stop Career Centers line item within the Employment Service budget.

 

 

Formula for Funding the Seven Basic Core Products and Services.

The formula for distribution of the $27.0 million to the States will be the following:

    1.  Subtract 2.4 percent ($648,000) to cover U.S. Department of Labor postage costs associated with this initiative.

    2.  Allocate .0024 percent of the available resources to the Territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands based on relative share of civilian labor force.

    3.  Allocate $25,000 each to Guam and the Virgin Islands.

    4.  Allocate 40 percent of the remainder in equal shares to each of the States, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

    5.  Allocate 60 percent of the remainder based on the relative share of the civilian labor force in all of these jurisdictions (50 States plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico).

 

 

Work Plan and Schedule

As a condition for receipt of PY 2000 funds, the State must submit a plan narrative describing the specifics of each planned priority, including significant milestones, a listing of estimated costs, and principal customers. Any anticipated equipment or property purchases or capital expenditures over $25,000 must be identified in the plan. At a minimum, the plan narrative should describe the delivery of the products/services/activities in the seven priority areas listed below. To the extent that significant portions of any of the seven priority areas of products and services are completed or funded by other sources, remaining One-Stop LMI funds may be used to support the activities listed later under Secondary Activities and Products, which include expansion of some activities from the priority list.

Funds provided by this grant may not be used to supplant funds which currently exist from other sources for core products and services.

If sufficient funds are not available from all sources to produce the priority elements, the prioritization of items within the priority list is at the discretion of each State. Approval of a work plan which does not include all the priority elements will be at the discretion of the Regional Office.

 

 

Priority Products and Services

The priority products and services for PY 2000 are based on discussions with the State LMI Directors represented on the WIC. This year's priorities reflect and support goals of the WIC Five Year Plan as submitted to OMB in September of 1999. The following is the list of priority areas of LMI products and services which describe how the $27.0 million in One-Stop LMI funds should be used. For each item in this section, include a description of the planned products and services, significant milestones, estimated costs, and principal customers:

    (1)  Continue to populate the ALMIS Database with State data.

    The ALMIS Database is a standardized database structure that has been developed for the maintenance of labor market and occupational information. The primary purpose of this database structure is to provide States with a common mechanism for the storage and exchange of State and local labor market information and related supporting data. When paired with appropriate software, the ALMIS Database provides the ability to analyze State, sub-State, and cross-area data for research purposes and to disseminate the results of such analysis to a wide variety of customers. Funds expended under the ALMIS Database project may be used for equipment, programming, database development, staff, or other required costs to implement and maintain the system. In an innovative fashion, this initiative truly brings valuable LMI data sources together "under one roof."

    This year, in addition to populating the ALMIS database tables mentioned in prior DOL/ETA directives, States shall populate the URL table on the database. This is a table which identifies State web linkages having resources which may be of interest to our customers. States shall also update and populate crosswalks to associated databases and an Occupational Employment Statistics Wage table which is under development.

    Last year the States were instructed to plan for the collection of data on occupational licensing to populate the following ALMIS database files: license.dbf, licauth.dbf and lichist.dbf. In this program year States are instructed to continue to populate these tables and submit the data for placement on the DOL-ETA sponsored America's Career Information Network (ACINet) site. The collection and display of occupational licensing data will be transferred from the NOICC sponsored Licensed Occupational Information System (LOIS) site to ACINet in the Fall, 2000. These data will be made available to State ALMIS database managers for the purpose of populating the licensing tables. The maintenance and update of the licensing data will now be the responsibility of the ALMIS database manager in each State. The National Crosswalk Service Center (NCSC) will serve as the vehicle to collect State data for display in ACINet. ALMIS database managers should contact Steve Rosenow at NCSC at 515-242-5034 to obtain existing licensing data if it is not currently available in the State's database.

    (2)  Produce long-term State-level industry and occupational employment projections and short-term State-level industry projections.

    The Long-Term Projections Consortium and the Short-Term Forecasts Consortium have developed employment projection systems for implementation by States. Moreover, with delivery of the expanded OES data collection since December 1997, States have a rich source of occupational data. Each State will produce Statewide long-term projections (1998-2008) with 1998 as the base year in coordination with the BLS National Projections for the same time period. Each State will also produce short-term industry and occupational forecasts using 4th quarter of the calendar year 2000 baseline data to project 4th quarter calendar year 2002 forecasts. States will submit these forecasts to designees of the consortia for placement on the ALMIS State Projections Internet site and the ACINet site. States will submit their projections in accordance with instructions to be issued by both consortia. In addition, States will develop subState short-term employment projections as requested by their local workforce boards.

    (3)  Develop occupational analysis products.

    Each State can choose the mix of media (i.e., Internet, CD, etc.) for the development of these tools. While most States have a variety of useful tools already, these funds are for the continued development of occupational analysis products encompassing career information, employment trends, educational attainment levels, wages, job openings, job market conditions, major employing industries, geographic distribution of jobs, training and education needed, skills, licensed occupations and other pertinent occupation-related information. The constant improvement and implementation of these tools are strongly encouraged. States are also strongly encouraged to link, in context, to their State's ETA-created State career site on ACINet, which can be accessed on: www.acinet.org. States may easily link to ACINet by following the instructions under the "link to ACINet" button on the bottom of the front page of the site. States are encouraged to present information using the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) and O*NET structure to the extent possible. This will provide greater standardization between State and national products, such as ACINet. For more information on O*NET, visit www.onetcenter.org.

    (4)  Provide an employer name and address list that can be accessed by the public.

    Continue State efforts to develop search engines or applications to provide access to the ALMIS Employer Database. The database is intended for use by Job Service Offices, LMI research units, One Stop Career Centers and other partner agencies involved in career exploration, job search and job development efforts. The general public will access the data through ACINet or applications provided by the above entities, or the search engine included on the CD. A licensed copy of the ALMIS Employer Database has been provided to States that signed the license agreement with infoUSA (formerly ABI, Inc.).

    (5)  Provide information and support to State and local Workforce Investment Boards and produce other State information products and services.

    States should aggressively seek new ways to introduce labor market information products to our customers. With the passage of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), more local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) will be demanding more and better localized data. States are strongly encouraged to work with local WIBs or subcommittees to determine the types of local market analysis that will be needed. States should expand analysis of current data through use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), use of administrative records, and ad hoc research.

    (6)  Support State-based workforce information delivery systems and maintain Common Systems/Web-Based Systems support.

    This broad priority includes development and support for electronic delivery of labor market information like LMI Access/SARAS, Internet, and other electronic delivery systems. This category provides States with resources to provide wide electronic dissemination of employment statistics information in a user friendly manner while contributing to the nationwide employment statistics system and meeting the technical standards of the system.

    (7)  Fund State workforce information training initiatives.

    Expand the training of LMI professionals and para-professionals and conduct training sessions for users of LMI. A valuable component of the LMI training experience will be the opportunity to interact with other LMI professionals from around the nation. This cross-training is a vital part of the capacity building for ALMIS. Building analytical skills of LMI professionals is important for meeting the goals of the WIA.

    Training for LMI users conducted by the State can be through formal class training, seminars, workshops, on-site technical assistance, cross-training or other innovative methods of capacity building. Allowable expenditures include: the costs of instructors, instructional materials, space rental and other expenses needed to encourage the participation of users. Each State is free to target the group or groups of users for this training. Funds may be used to cover the cost of tuition at the LMI Institute as well as for necessary travel and per diem expenses during the time of the training.

 

 

Secondary Activities and Products

For each item funded in this section, include a description of the planned products and services, significant milestones, estimated costs, and principal customers.

    (1)  Coordinate and expand access to web-based systems through community organizations, libraries, and schools. In order for universal access to labor market information to become a reality, it needs to be available through a variety of organizations. This includes working with local organizations to understand and use local labor market information.

    (2)  Continue the development of occupational supply information. Information on the available occupational skills mix is an important aspect of the job flow process. In order to make sound decisions on jobs, careers, and workforce development, it is important to understand the dynamics of the occupation and whether or not training is needed.

    (3)  Determine local needs for fringe benefit information and the methodology for providing it. A growing aspect of finding and retraining workers is in the area of benefits. Businesses, workers, and job seekers view benefits being as almost as important as wages. This is an area that can help businesses understand their place in the labor market and can help job seekers in finding the right job match.

    (4)  Conduct research to address and develop options for meeting customer needs for job vacancy information. In the fast paced economy that we live in today, it is imperative that we continuously seek ways to obtain better information and disseminate it. Work in this area can be shared with other States in order to maximize findings from State research.

 

 

Performance Standards

Performance will be evaluated based on (1) the quality of the products; (2) fulfillment of the statement of work in a timely manner; and (3) utilization of obligated funds. Fund utilization will be reviewed by the Regional Office against the quarterly spending plan. When expenditures are substantially below plan, ETA may deobligate funds for redistribution to other States.

 

 

Reporting

A separate Financial Status Report (SF-269-Long-Form) must be submitted quarterly for each fund account for each year of funds provided, until such time as all funds have been expended or the period of availability for the plan has expired, whichever comes first. Quarterly reports (one original and two copies) are due 30 days after the end of the quarter to the appropriate Regional Office..

With respect to core products and services produced under these grants, States must submit a brief progress report every 6 months to the ETA National and Regional Offices (due each July 31 and January 31) indicating the progress of accomplishment against the One Stop/Labor Market Information plan narrative. For example, with the first priority - "populate and maintain the ALMIS database" - States should indicate how frequently they update files and the level of costs associated with such tasks. What ETA is looking for are quantifiable measures to evaluate the returns on ETA's investment.

Finally, States will also submit hard copies of products when they become available to the ETA National Office, Division of USES/ALMIS, Attention: Steve Aaronson. States may choose to send electronic copies of the State progress reports; in the event a State chooses to do so, these reports should be e-mailed (saaronson@doleta.gov) in either Word Perfect or PDF format.