Volume 6, No.4
Winter 2000

ILMR Homepage

Feature Articles:
Portal Page Web site:
Access the Information You Need, All in One Place

Rapid Respone Unit:
What Employers and Dislocated Workers Need to Know

Help for Illinois Employers
The Industrial Training Program (ITP) and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Illinois (MEPI)

Union Membership in 2000:
Numbers Decline During Record Economic Expansion

Archives

New from IDES: Portal Page Web Site
Gateway to Essential Information for Employers and Jobseekers
By Dave Bieneman

In March 2001, the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) launched its new Web site, http://www.ILWorkInfo.com. This site serves as an information gateway for accessing three Web sites:

• Workforce Info Center
• LMI Source
• Career Click

Workforce Info Center

An interactive Web site featuring labor market information and career resources for Illinois. The Web site allows users to access a database and download information for particular geographic areas. Geographic areas available include counties, metropolitan areas, and workforce investment areas. Information on the Web site includes:

• Career Information
• Local area profiles, including profiles of workforce investment areas
• Links to the IDES Illinois Skills Match system
• Links to resources for small business

LMI Source

A Web site containing comprehensive labor market information for Illinois and a variety of geographical areas in the state, including cities, counties and metropolitan areas. The data and publications on the Web site are also available to download in Excel and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) formats. Labor market information available on the site includes:

• Monthly employment and unemployment data
• Current press releases
• Long- and short-term occupational and industry employment projections
• Occupational wage data (entry-level, median, and experienced)
• Workforce Availability/Affirmative Action information (racial and gender demographics of the workforce for the state, metropolitan areas and counties)

Career Click

A Web site that packages labor market information and career information towards a target audience of high school students, their parents, and their counselors. Labor market information is available for long- and short-term projections and wages together with career information such as education and training requirements, skills information and top employing industries. Many of the occupations also have a short video available which the user can watch to find out what activities are involved in an occupation.

Although much of the same data are available through any of the three Web sites. There is a clear difference in how the data are packaged for each site. The Workforce Info Center allows the customer to pull up specific data for particular industries and occupations with the ability to put those data into a download file. The LMI Source allows the customer to browse or download complete data files and publications. This site is ready- made for planners, researchers and others who want all of the data for a particular program and already know what they are looking for. There are also links to several other Web sites that take customers directly to sources of information which labor market economists have found that LMI customers demand. Career Click was designed specifically with high school students in mind. This age group is just starting to think about an occupational career and is interested in obtaining related information.