What is labour-market information – and why do counsellors need to know about it?

A student says they want to move to Australia and apply for permanent residency. They’ve heard that this is easier for people in certain jobs and want to ask you what they can consider. What would you recommend for them? 

Or a parent says they’ve heard that civil engineers won’t have a good future in this country because the real-estate business isn’t doing so well. Is this true? 

We are not walking encyclopedias, so we certainly don’t need to know this information off the top of our heads. But it would be useful to say in both cases, “I don’t know the exact answer yet, but I’ll look it up and get back to you.” 

In which case – where would you start looking?

What is labour-market information?

Labour-market information (LMI), simply put, describes any type of information used to make informed decisions about the labour market. 

This is quite a broad definition – and rightly so, as LMI can encompass many things. It can include detailed statistics about employment wages and salaries, occupational trends and forecasts, and industry sectors. And it can also include job descriptions, the role of emerging technologies, working conditions and their change over time. LMI also encompasses qualifications, education and training, and career options, which college counsellors refer to on a daily basis. 

However, LMI does not necessarily need to be very formal. It can also be anecdotal, such as the information we pick up from other people, or descriptive, such as announcements that governments, business and industry groups put out regarding the labour market. 

So LMI can vary widely, but this is what we are citing when we provide career advice. Knowing a comprehensive source of LMI can help us be more informed counsellors. 

What can LMI tell you? 

If it’s still not clear what LMI can tell you, this useful two-page handout has a straightforward list. Borrowing from it directly, LMI can tell you: 

• What jobs and skills employers are looking for
• Skills gaps
• Wage rates
• Which industries are hiring and where they are located
• What education and training you need for specific jobs
• Which job areas are growing in the future.

This article goes into the types of questions LMI can answer:

• Is this sector/profession in growth or decline?
• Is employment in this profession strong in my geographical location?
• What is it like to work in this job?
• What skills, knowledge and training will I need to get a job like this?
• What are the remuneration levels like for particular roles?
• What are the typical recruitment and selection processes like for this occupation?
• What are graduate outcomes for particular courses?
• What are working conditions like?
• What will the jobs of the future look like, and which jobs may no longer exist?

How can college and careers counsellors use LMI?

1. Advising students

We are used to referencing university websites when we advise students on their choice of degree major. We are also used to considering their individual factors, such as strengths, preferences and grades.

However, we can also refer to a wide range of LMI to advise on the wages and job growth of a particular occupation, or to comment on industry trends. 

If a student does not know what they want to do, that’s a different conversation, but if a student has a clear idea of what they want to do and especially in a certain country, then LMI can really help you advise them whether their goals are feasible. 

2. Talking to parents

Parents may bring ideas and statistics they have heard to the table. When this happens, it may be helpful to cite LMI, to ensure that the conversation remains grounded in data. Doing so adds credibility to your conclusions and suggestions. 

When I started as a counsellor, I used to rely on anecdotes (which also do count as LMI). But going further and referencing quantitative data from legitimate government sources can help establish your expertise. 

You don’t have to collect and analyse data when other people have already done that for you; you just have to reference it. 

What are examples of LMI by country?

Here is a list of LMI of a few countries to start off with. I have cited these particular countries because their sources are in English. The first four countries are also common study-abroad destinations for students, so they may be useful to refer to when advising on post-study career options. 

UK: this handout, cited earlier, has a list for UK LMI. 

Australia: this article, cited earlier, has a list of Australian LMI.

Canada: this article has a list for Canadian LMI.

US: for the US, O*net, CareerOneStop, MyNextMove, and the website of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics can be helpful. This is a technical list of LMI and employment data.

Note that some websites may require the use of VPN.

India: This report was released for India for the year 2024.

A few more comments:

Regions: some countries break LMI down by specific provinces or states or regions. The Canadian LMI is actually from the government website for Newfoundland and Labrador. US states likely offer LMI for each of their states. 

Official: these are official sources, often provided by the government. However, remember that unofficial sources can count as LMI, too. For the purpose of this article, I am providing official information from governments, as it has high credibility. 

How should we use other countries’ LMI?

Some LMI’s usefulness may be restricted to a specific country and indeed may not be applicable in your own country. For instance, job shortages, salaries and qualifications may differ between countries, and should not be referred to when a student has a specific goal in mind. When I was in Hungary, I saw students cite salaries from Glassdoor – but these are US salaries, which tend to be higher than the local ones. Looking up salaries from other countries can certainly be interesting, but also misleading if decisions are being made on that information alone. 

However, other LMI can be generalised across countries. For instance, the career-exploration tools or job descriptions of an occupation can be applicable across nations and continents. The established LMI of others countries can contain a lot of interesting information and resources, so feel free to use them in your practice – but just be clear about the source of the data.

This is a lot of information, isn’t it?

Yes, and it can be overwhelming. You don’t have to decide to read up on all countries’ available LMI – that would be like deciding to read a dictionary from cover to cover. Here is an article on how to manage information overload – or consider using AI to summarise large swathes of information for a specific purpose. 

More likely, when a need arises, you will naturally end up seeking LMI. And now that you know what this is, your search can be more directed and purpose-driven. 

For instance, the last time I remember using LMI was when I was advising a student who wanted to be a doctor in South Korea but had to find alternatives because of incredibly high competition. He indicated an interest in Australia, and we ended up looking at nursing courses there (a medicine-adjacent course in the health industry). Although he wasn’t interested in LMI, I brought up the occupation shortage list by province (which may help in selecting a university in a particular region), and a quick Google search yielded various news articles reporting nursing shortages in Australia. 

This experience showed me how I could actively use LMI to give advice – which gave me further confidence in my guidance.