How Well We Helped You

An Overview of LMI Customers in 2010

by Oriane Casale
February 2011

The mission of the Labor Market Information (LMI) Office of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) is to deliver high-quality labor market information to support Minnesota’s businesses, its workforce and economic development system, and the workforce of today and tomorrow. We collect, analyze, and disseminate economic data on Minnesota’s business community, workforce, and job market. We also provide key economic indictors, employment projections, and regional and statewide industry and workforce analysis as well as information to help individuals make informed career decisions. We believe that access to high-quality, up-to-date labor market information is particularly important during an economic downturn like the one we are currently experiencing.

To improve our information and services we annually summarize information collected on our customers including type of customer, information requested, and satisfaction level with our information and services. We hope this summary is informative for you as well.

We obtain information on our customers from several sources:

• Telephone and e-mail requests
• Web statistics from our Google Analytics web tracking tool
• Information from our mailing and e-mail lists
• Customer satisfaction information from DEED’s customer satisfaction telephone survey

You will find all of this information summarized for 2010 in this article, plus we also take this opportunity to update you on new and improved products and services that we provided during the past year.

LMI Customers and Information Delivery Methods

The LMI Office offers a number of delivery methods for LMI data and information. 

• LMI Website: The vast majority of our customers access information directly from our website at www.PositivelyMinnesota.com/lmi . 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. Essentially all releasable data and information that we produce are available on our website.

Last year the entire DEED website went through a complete overhaul. Most labor market information that was available on the old site is still available. However, one thing that is missing is access to the older issues of Trends and Review. The DEED Communications Office is in the process of adding a Publications Archive to the website, which will include copies of Trends and Review going back 10 years. You can look for this in the next month or so.

• Analyst Services: Our telephone (1.888.234.1114 or 651.259.7384) and e-mail (deed.lmi@state.mn.us) Helpline service helps customers find and understand LMI data and information by providing access to analysts. Analysts also provide presentations to a wide range of audiences as well as training sessions primarily geared for workforce and economic development professionals. Consultation services and data extraction and analysis are also available on a fee-for-service basis.
• Newsletter Notification: We have two e-mail lists. Subscribers to the LMI Data and Publications list receive a brief monthly newsletter with Web links to newly available data and information. Subscribers to the LMI Releases for News Media receive a monthly notice of the release of our monthly data. 

The agency has also introduced RSS Feeds, which provide notification to subscribers whenever LMI data and publications are updated. You can sign up for them at www.PositivelyMinnesota.com/Newsroom/RSS_Feeds/index.aspx

• Direct Mailing List:  This list is for customers who want to receive publications and brochures that are available in print.

Table 1 provides a snapshot of customer contacts we made in each category. Overall, the LMI Office had more than 331,500 customers and made about 485,000 contacts with these customers in 2010. The vast majority of these were Web customers.[1] while a significant minority received LMI services through other means.

We tracked detailed information on the customers who were in touch with us by telephone in 2010 to request information through the LMI Helpline or through a regional analyst, or the customers who were on our publications mailing list. One important piece of information that we track through this method is the type of business that our customers represent. This helps us understand what your information needs are so that we can better shape our information production efforts. Table 2 shows that, based on this source of information, our top four customer groups are private businesses, members of the media, DEED staff, and nonprofit organizations.

LMI Information

As readers of the Minnesota Employment Review know, the LMI Office produces a range of data and informational products on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. These products include industry and occupational employment and wage data, unemployment data, job openings data, long-term employment projections and short-term employment forecasts, and articles and analysis on a wide range of labor market topics. This section addresses the types of informational products our customers accessed
in 2010.

The top LMI Web pages in 2010 by number of pageviews were the Minnesota Economic Trends and Minnesota Employment Review publications with a total of 51,400 pageviews together. The most popular tools are job exploration tools: Occupations In Demand and JobStat combined had a total of 14,119 pageviews. The two most popular data series were the Occupational Employment Statistics and Employment Projections data series, with a total of 9,350 pageviews. Table 3 summarizes this information.

Over the past five years we have moved away from print publications and toward providing our range of products via the Internet. The main reason for this is cost, but this approach also improves timeliness because data and analysis can be made available almost instantly on our website upon completion. However, because we know that many of our customers want to be able to manipulate the data or print out articles to read at their leisure, we also try to make all material available for download, either in Excel tables if it is purely data or in PDF format if it involves reading. 

LMI Customer Satisfaction

Each year we look closely at the customer satisfaction results from DEED’s Customer Satisfaction Survey. This year 576 respondents gave feedback on LMI and career information. Although most of the responses were actually for career information, with iSeek.org and MinnesotaWorks.net being the most used tools, only combined data are available. Table 4 summarizes their responses.

2010 Accomplishments

We have several noteworthy accomplishments to report for 2010.

Green Research: We are well under way with our Green Jobs Research Project, funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars from the Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. You can read about the research and view findings at www.PositivelyMinnesota.com/Data_Publications/Data/Green_Jobs/index.aspx

This site is updated as new information becomes available.

Minnesota Economic Trends: We have remained on a quarterly publication schedule. In 2011 we will be sending a customer satisfaction survey to our Trends readers. We hope that you will look for this and return it to us with your thoughts.

Website and Data Tools: We added a series of data called Business Employment Dynamics to our website, which measures gross job gains and losses at Minnesota companies and provides information on the dynamics inherent in the state’s labor market. You can explore this data series at www.PositivelyMinnesota.com/apps/lmi/qcew/AreaSel.aspx

We also added RSS Feeds as a way to keep our customers up to date on labor market data and information. You can sign up for RSS Feeds at www.PositivelyMinnesota.com/Newsroom/RSS_Feeds/index.aspx

We always welcome comments and feedback on our products and services. Go to www.PositivelyMinnesota.com/Contact_Us/index.aspx to find your preferred method of contacting us.

[1]Web analysis is based on data from April 23 to December 31, 2010.  There is a break in series because DEED switched from WebTrends software to Google Analytics.  However, WebTrends data are only available through 2009 so no data on web usage is available for the DEED website from January through mid-April 2010.  Also, it should be noted that both the structure of the new website, as well as to some extent the use of Google Analytics in place of WebTrends, makes these numbers inconsistent with previous years.

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