- Center for Urban Research
- New York City Labor Market Information Service
- Other Projects and Publications
Other Projects and Publications
These projects and publications present a wide reaching analysis of multiple issues impacting the New York City workforce.
Middle Skill Jobs
September 2017
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is charged with the responsibility to plan and build the landmark projects that support economic growth in the region. An important part of its mission is keeping the people who live and work in this dynamic region informed on topics of interest to the region through a regular podcast.
In Episode 23, Christopher Eshleman interviews Senior Research Associate, Ofronama Biu and Director, Lesley Hirsch, on NYCLMIS' latest research on middle-skill occupations, why it matters, and the state of supply and demand in New York City and the region.
Released Summer 2017
The purpose of this report is to help education and workforce providers and funders to understand the balance between the supply of and demand for middle-skill jobs in New York City. This report focuses on middle-skill occupations in healthcare. Findings for all other middle-skill occupations are reported in aggregate by major occupational group.
The report should inform providers' decisions about which occupational programs should be considered for contraction, streamlining, or maintenance at current enrollment levels.
LMIS produced this report and provided the underlying research for the project. The primary authors are Ofronama Biu and Lesley Hirsch. Pam Hoberman, Kasey Zapatka, and Yuemeng Zhang contributed to the report and related research activities. James Orr served as a consultant on this project, reviewing the literature on similar studies and providing invaluable advice. NYCLMIS is also grateful for the support of members of the technical and stakeholder advisory boards, whose names can be found in the full report.
Funding for this research was provided by the New York Community Trust, the New York City Workforce Funders, and the New York City Workforce Development Board.
Released February 2017
NYCLMIS is pleased to present Building Career Pathways to Success: Jersey City New Skills at Work. Researched and developed by NYCLMIS under the leadership of the Jersey City Mayor's Office, this report provides a comprehensive demographic snapshot of Jersey City and data-informed recommendations for ensuring the development of a stronger talent pipeline prepared to meet local employer demand and contribute to the region’s continued prosperity.
The report confirms that Jersey City is one of the nation’s most diverse cities, the majority of residents are in their prime working years, it enjoys low unemployment and it has experienced unprecedented growth and development. Yet, while many residents are highly educated and financially secure, one in five residents lives below the poverty line. The Jersey City News Skills at Work initiative seeks to bridge this divide by helping workforce professionals and policymakers embrace strategies that can better enable all residents to capitalize on Jersey City’s economic and cultural vitality.
The report’s findings show that the most promising middle-skill opportunities for Jersey City residents are sales and service positions within Transportation, Logistics and Distribution (TLD) ; an industry that has outpaced the county’s overall private sector growth six-fold — and occupations that support business growth and operation, including workers who handle finances, payroll and human resources in Hudson County’s top economic sectors — finance and insurance, health care and social assistance, and retail trades. To help job seekers take better advantage of demand for these jobs, the report’s recommendations include greater collaboration between employers and educators to ensure that classes and training programs are aligned with employer demand, expansion of work-embedded training options like apprenticeships, paid internships and job shadowing, improvement of public awareness about job opportunities in middle skills careers, and efforts to help residents overcome barriers to enrolling and persisting in school.
NYCLMIS produced this report and provided the underlying research for the project. Lesley Hirsch is the primary author of this report, and Ronnie Kauder, Yuemeng Zhang, and Pamela Hoberman lent support as co-authors. Ofronama Biu, Kasey Zapatka, and Alison Richardson also contributed to the report and related research activities. This report was designed by scottcitrondesign.
This project was made possible with generous support from JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s New Skills at Work global initiative.
Released May 2016
LMIS is pleased to present Connecting to Promising Careers: Middle-Skill Jobs in the Lower Hudson Valley. This report, released May 24, 2016, is the product of a nearly year-long collaboration of Lower Hudson Valley representatives from education, business and government brought together and led by SUNY Westchester Community College (WCC) to strengthen regional employment pipelines for promising middle-skill jobs.
An intensive study into the Lower Hudson Valley labor market, conducted by NYCLMIS, revealed the following areas as especially promising for the region: Health Information Management, Tech Support, and Hospitality Management. This report summarizes the project's objectives and research methodology, offers context to the project, details research findings for these three focus areas and lays out recommendations and next steps for stakeholders.
Visit the WCC's official report webpage to learn more about the process, findings and next steps, and to view excerpts, tables and figures from the report.
NYCLMIS produced this report and provided the underlying research for the project. Ronnie Kauder is the primary author of this report, and Pamela Hoberman and Lesley Hirsch lent support as co-authors. Yuemeng Zhang, Alison Richardson, and Edo Navot also contributed to the report and related research activities. This report was designed by scottcitrondesign.
NYCLMIS thanks members of the stakeholder collaborative for their dedication and valuable insights. NYCLMIS extends a special thank you to our WCC colleagues, Vice President and Dean of Workforce and Community Education, Tere Wisell, and Assistant Dean and Special Projects Director, Jeanne Maloney, for inviting us to join them as their research partner, and more broadly, for their commendable creativity, vision and leadership throughout this process. Finally, NYCLMIS thanks JPMorgan & Co.'s Michael Haberman for his unwavering support and for connecting us to this exciting work.
This project was made possible with generous support from JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s New Skills at Work global initiative.
Released Summer 2017
This literature review surveys methods in projecting supply and demand for middle-skill occupations in the aggregate and in four local areas—Wisconsin, Texas, the Greater Houston metropolitan area, and a 10-county region in Western New York State. The studies offer several options for identifying middle-skill mismatches in local areas, ranging from strict numerical differences between projected supply and demand to a comparison of supply and demand growth rates.
This literature review was written by Dr. James Orr, who served as a consultant for the NYC Labor Market Information Service. The findings informed The Study of the Supply of and Demand for Middle-Skill Jobs in New York City.
Real-Time Labor Market Information
Released December 2015
For the second year in a row, NYCLMIS continued its collaboration with Maher & Maher and Jobs for the Future on a national LMI technical assistance project. This time, NYCLMIS explored ways workforce stakeholders are currently leveraging real-time LMI to enhance and inform their work.
This project involved several components, including:
- A report on leveraging real-time and traditional LMI;
- A Real-Time LMI fact-sheet
- An interactive three-part online course that gives an overview of Real-Time LMI, including its strengths and limitations, and who uses it and why;
- An online peer-learning exchange with state LMI shops from across the country that discussed ways Real-Time LMI can benefit Sector Strategy development and implementation; and
- Partnering with several state LMI shops to help them explore the potential value add of Real-Time LMI to their work (example).
This project is supported by the US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration (ETA). For updates and to access and download these and other related materials, visit the ETA project page.
Released October 2014
Working with Maher & Maher and Jobs for the Future, LMIS took part in a US Department of Labor-supported technical assistance project. The project's main goal was to increase states' and workforce development knowledge centers' understanding of real-time labor market information (RTLMI) and help build their capacity to use it.
Released February 2013
Real-time LMI fills a previously unmet need for information about the labor market because it provides insight into the nature and extent of current employer demand, emerging occupations and skill and credential requirements.
Although real-time LMI is useful in its own right, its relationship to actual hiring activity is not yet clear. To better understand this relationship, we compared real-time results against related measures of traditional LMI. This report contains the results of our preliminary analysis and more about real time methodology.
Health Information
Released July 2016
The widespread adoption of electronic health records and related systems has dramatically changed the way people perform their jobs in all healthcare delivery settings. The new research brief examines the types of jobs altered by this technology, and the new skills and competencies people in these jobs need to successfully navigate it. The brief also takes a deeper dive into the credentials employers seek for jobs in information management.
This brief was supported by the Kingsborough Community College Center for Economic and Workforce Development.
Careers in Health Information, a white-paper issued by the New York City Labor Market Information Service (NYCLMIS), explains how this new and growing field is organized; describes the roles and responsibilities of a variety of the component occupations; and spells out the types of credentials, education, and experience that employers are seeking from job candidates. The report concludes with information about typical pay and places of work for selected job titles and a listing of relevant education and training programs within the City University of New York (CUNY).
“Educators and workforce providers lack information about this new and emerging field. They need to understand what type of preparation is needed to obtain these positions so that they can help students and job seekers achieve success in the labor market,” said Ronnie Kauder, NYCLMIS Senior Associate and primary author of this report.
The paper was originally developed as part of CUNY CareerPATH, an education and training initiative involving eight CUNY colleges, funded by the United States Department of Labor. Also as part of the initiative, early this fall, NYCLMIS will release a second white paper on careers for direct support professionals and two new career pathway maps.
Health Care
Released October 2015
Direct Support Careers in the Developmental Disabilities Field is based on an analysis of labor market data and discussions with industry experts and employers, explores jobs and career paths for people who provide direct support to individuals with developmental disabilities. The top jobs are Direct Support Professional and Job Coach. This field is growing and changing and desperately needs people who are interested in and well-suited to this type of work.
Downloads:
This workforce solution was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The solution was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express of implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.
Technology
Launched in January 2017, CUNY TechWorks is a multiyear initiative to help participating community colleges develop or expand their programs in web development, software applications development, and network support. These continuing education programs are designed to equip students with the skills they need to enter these jobs and to help them lay a foundation on which they can continue on with their studies to build careers in the field.
Participating community colleges include Kingsborough, Queensborough Community College, and the Borough of Manhattan. NYCLMIS joins CUNY TechWorks as a research partner, lending guidance and expertise in program alignment to labor market demand.
Over the course of this initiative, LMIS will conduct research and develop materials from it to help inform program development and career planning.
Skills Mapping Workshops
LMIS organized a series of interactive Skills Mapping Workshops in Spring 2017. Through these facilitated workshops, participants identified the most sought after skills within the relevant occupations to help the community colleges prioritize the development of these essential skills as they plan or revise IT curricula and work-based learning opportunities. Participants reached a consensus on (1) industry-valued skillsets; (2) the workforce/industry context of these skills; (3) the levels of proficiency; and (4) assessment methodologies.
Participants consisted of hiring managers and other industry experts and faculty from the campus. Participants attended two workshops and offered feedback between sessions using online tools.
Released 2014
Since 2005, the IT sector has seen astounding growth in terms of the number of firms and employees located in Brooklyn and annual wages earned here. In our 2014 Spring Market Labor Review (released April 2014) we take a look at how Brooklyn’s convenience, accessibility, affordability and cachet have made it the fastest growing IT sector in New York City.
Leisure and Hospitality
Released March 2013
This report, prepared for Deputy Mayors Linda Gibbs and Robert Steel, and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott's Workforce Collaborative, answers questions including: What makes the industry tick? What kinds of jobs exist within the industry? What do the jobs pay? What type of education and experience is needed to land a job? and How do hoteliers recruit and hire their workforce?
The report features "real-time" labor market information, interviews with some of New York City's top employers, the Hotel & Motel Trades Council, the labor union representing the majority of hotel workers, and several education providers. It also includes "spotlights" on seven of the most common jobs in the industry: cooks, guest service agents, janitors, lodging managers, maintenance workers, room attendants and security guards.
Downloads:
Green Jobs
Released April 2014
Where are New York City’s green jobs and what skills do people need to get hired? With its partners - the New York State Department of Labor, the Advanced Energy Research Center at Stony Brook University, and the University of Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering - LMIS completed a groundbreaking study to answer these questions. The study rigorously measured employer demand for green jobs and the capacity of current educational and training offerings to prepare the labor supply in New York State. It focused on green economic activity in four industry clusters: construction, component manufacturing, professional services (except legal services), and building services.
The project was supported by the United States Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. NYCLMIS received additional support from CUNY’s Office of Adult and Continuing Education and the New York City Workforce Investment Board (WIB) and worked closely with the the New York City Employment and Training Coalition in undertaking the study. On behalf of its partners, LMIS compiled the final report available in full or by chapter below.
Chapter Downloads
- Chapter 1. Introduction and Methodology
- Chapter 2. Statewide Findings
- Chapter 3. Employer Demand in Green Construction
- Chapter 4. Employer Demand in Professional Services
- Chapter 5. Employer Demand in Green Building Services
- Chapter 6. Employer Demand in Green Component Manufacturing
- Chapter 7. Findings About Education and Training Opportunities
- A. Construction and Extraction Occupations
- B. Architecture and Engineering
- C. Installation, Maintenance and Repair Occupations
- D. Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations
- E. Life, Physical and Social Science Occupations
- F. Production Occupations
- G. Miscellaneous "Green" Occupations and Job Families
- Appendix A. Detailed Description of Sampling and Data Collection
- Appendix B. Industries Included in the Study
Jobseekers and workforce providers need more concrete information to navigate the new and evolving green economy. Policy makers need to anticipate and fund the right amount of relevant training for incumbent, new, and dislocated workers in green occupations. The NYCLMIS' Introduction to New York City Green Jobs attempts to provide this information. The report defines the green economy, identifies local industries that are most closely involved in it, defines green jobs, distinguishes new jobs from old jobs that require new skills, gives examples of green jobs likely to grow in New York City, and outlines the major factors that will affect the future demand for green jobs.
A great deal remains to be known about the prospect for green jobs in New York City. In the final section, the report describes a study being undertaken by the NYCLMIS. The study will assess the nature and extent of employer demand for green jobs and the supply of educational and training opportunities in New York City.
Transportation and Logistics
Released September 2008
This report presents a comprehensive examination of the status and economic importance of four strategic transportation subsectors and their role as sources of jobs for the customers of the city’s public workforce system: air, truck, transit and ground passenger, and support activities for transportation. In addition to examining the respective subsectors’ roles in the metropolitan economy and major trends that influence their labor market needs, the report includes analysis of employment and wage trends, occupations and advancement pathways, and current workforce demographics.
The NYCLMIS has also issued four shorter companion pieces to inform workforce professionals’ business development, job placement, and training activities in each of the four subsectors and help jobseekers with career decision-making. These four subsector profiles are available here in PDF for download:
- Air transportation
- Truck transportation
- Transit and ground passenger transportation
- Support activities for transportation
Detailed occupation profiles excerpted from the full report can be found on our Occupational Profiles webpage.
Lesley Hirsch, LMIS' founding director, presented major research findings followed by a discussion among New York’s top experts in transportation and workforce development. Panelists included:
- Kendra Adams, Executive Director, New York State Motor Truck Association
- Dale Grant, Executive Director of Grant Associates, Inc.;
- Sheila Maguire, Vice President, Public/Private Ventures;
- Robert E. Paaswell, Distinguished Professor and Director, UniversityTransportation Research Center at City College of NY; and
- Eugene Spruck, retired chief economist of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The panel was moderated by John H. Mollenkopf, Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center.
General Reports
Released Fall 2014
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (WIOA) was enacted in July 2014 and will replace the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) when it goes into effect in July 2015. WIOA places a greater emphasis than WIA on the importance of informing education, workforce and economic development programs and policies with labor market intelligence (LMI). Read the report to learn more about how WIOA strengthens LMI requirements.
Released September 2014
The 2014 State of the Unions report, the fifth in an annual series on trends in organized labor, reveals that private sector unionization rates rose in New York State and New York City this past year, reversing a seven-year downward trend. Union density rose this year to 24.6 percent in New York State and 24.0 percent in New York City. The increases were concentrated in the construction, real estate, and hotel industries.
These are industries that have a long history of high unionization in New York, and in which employment has rebounded recently after falling sharply during the Great Recession.
The study analyzes U.S. Current Population Survey data to explore variations in the composition of unionized labor by industry, sex, educational attainment, age, race and ethnicity, and immigration status. The report reveals many surprising differences between unionization patterns in New York City and State, as compared to the nation.
Prior State of the Unions reports:
Released June 2012
As New York City’s public university, The City University of New York (CUNY) has a special responsibility to educate a workforce that will build the city’s economy in the decades ahead. To ensure that CUNY is preparing graduates who can sustain New York City’s global leadership, the University must continually assess key sector needs and review its own academic programs and its approach to helping students secure work. To that end, CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein formed a Jobs Task Force in the fall of 2011 to examine industry and labor force trends in several industry sectors that are of strategic importance to the University and New York City’s economy including: finance, insurance, and accounting; health care; higher education; information technology (IT); and media and advertising.
Chancellor Goldstein asked the task force to answer the following key questions: What current jobs requiring a college degree are difficult to fill? What are the jobs and skills of the future that require a college degree? How can CUNY and other institutions of higher education better prepare students for the labor market today and in the future?
The New York City Labor Market Information Service (NYCLMIS) worked with CUNY’s Office of Academic Affairs to conduct the study which included analysis of labor market information, interviews with industry experts, and analysis of relevant literature. The resulting report, Jobs for New York’s Future, presents overarching themes, industry-specific findings, and recommendations made by the interviewed industry experts, as well as next steps recommended by the Jobs-Task-Force.
Released February 2009
This report presents a systematic assessment of New York City’s labor market intended for use by the policymakers and providers of the city's workforce development system. In the report, the NYCLMIS examines the largest employment industries according to five criteria relevant to placing jobseekers – employment trends, wage level trends, access for people with less than a four-year college degree, performance during previous recessions, and exposure to the financial services industries. Findings are presented for each set of assessment measures, and then in combination, to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of key industry groups. The report identifies home health care, individual and family services, colleges and universities, doctor's offices, and grocery stores as the most all-around resilient industry groups in 2009.
Downloads:
New York City’s Deputy Mayors Linda Gibbs and Robert Steel and Chancellor Dennis Walcott released the 2nd Annual State of the New York City Workforce System: One System for One City. This report summarizes the City’s efforts to serve the employers and jobseekers during Fiscal Year 2011. Like its predecessor, it collates information across all City-run workforce programs, including work-related education, job training and employment services. Its purpose is to provide policymakers and the general public with information on the content of New York City’s workforce development programs, the customers they are serving, and how effectively they are doing so in the context of the current labor market.
The report is itself a collaborative project among education and workforce, education, and economic development agencies. In its capacity as consultant to the citywide workforce collaborative, the NYCLMIS conducted labor market analyses (sections 2 and 3) which provides the context from which to view the City’s many programs and services.
One System for One City, the first annual report on New York City’s menu of workforce development services, offers a comprehensive picture of publicly funded and administered employment, training and workforce education programs in New York City, including demographic information on customers served as well as a complete program inventory. The report features an analysis of labor market opportunities and challenges conducted by the NYCLMIS.
