Labour Market Information

Simply put, LMI is when the skills and experience offered by people looking for work matches what the employer needs and both parties are in agreement on the wages, hours and conditions, everyone is happy.

The average person in the UK spends 80,000 hours over a lifetime in work – approximately 30 years! The rise in average lifespans means that this is likely to increase in future. Young people today are expected to work for longer than any generation in history. Therefore, wouldn’t it be great to find a job or career that you love considering you will be working in that area for so long! Decisions which affect our careers are amongst the most important and influential choices we can make.

Where will the jobs be?

An ongoing demand to develop new technologies creates new opportunities but some roles are edged out too – just think about jobs that were commonplace a decade ago that are now done by machines! A huge growth in the knowledge-based industries means that more jobs today require specific and technical skills and often a higher qualification level.

Creative and digital, information and communication technology, hi-tech engineering, life sciences and tourism are all examples of sectors which contribute hugely to the UK economy and a lot of the new jobs available to young people will be in these industries. A relatively new sector often termed the ‘green economy’, offers a variety of roles which will help the government meet its environmental targets.

We’ll also see demand for people to join the hospitality, construction, agri tech and logistics sectors – some will be into new jobs such as in hotels and leisure activities, other vacancies will be to replace those who retire or move on. And with life expectancy growing there’ll be a huge demand for care and health workers across a range of jobs.

It’s important to remember that employers across all sectors are crying out for young people to replace those who leave even if they aren’t creating new jobs and they’re also looking to create more diverse workforces.

Think beyond what you consider to be a ‘typical’ job in a sector - manufacturing, for example, has some hugely exciting jobs waiting for creative young people and the construction industry desperately needs people in non-manual roles such as project management. Discover more about the top 5 sectors across Greater Manchester on GMACS.

What employers want

A wide range of research has shown that there are common skills and qualities which employers want from their employees. These include a need to have good literacy, numeracy and IT skills. However, employers also want workers who are motivated and have a positive attitude at work. Qualifications are obviously important, and in some jobs they are a must, but employers are looking for much, more than qualifications. There is a very high competition for some jobs nowadays. Not only are there fewer jobs around today that young people would typically access, people are working to an older age. This means there are more experienced people also looking for work and competing for the same jobs for which you, as a young person, will be applying. And today’s labour market is a global one - countries like China, India and Brazil are producing highly skilled workers also looking for work and willing to cast their nets wide. It is vital that you have as many skills and qualities and gaining work experience and/or part time work could be crucial to hone these skills.

Employers top 10 skills (Source: The Careers and Employability Service at Kent University)

• Verbal communication
• Teamwork
• Commercial awareness
• Analysing and investigating
• Initiative/self-awareness
• Drive
• Written communication
• Planning and organising
• Flexibility
• Time management

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