LMIS partnered with MDRC from 2018 through 2021 on its MyGoals for Employment Success program. As described on MDRC’s website, MyGoals is “a workforce program intended to help recipients of federal housing subsidies who are not employed find work, build careers, and advance toward greater self-sufficiency. The program incorporates an innovative employment coaching model that is informed by current literature in behavioral psychology on executive functioning skills and their relevance to economic mobility.” 

To support the program’s success, LMIS created regional labor market profiles for selected occupations to serve as resources for MyGoals coaches to use with direct-service participants in Baltimore and Houston. Information in these real-time data profiles included skills requested by employers, key local employers hiring within the geographic area, job titles, and baseline education requirements for job access.

“It’s been really helpful to have LMIS as a partner; they’ve listened to MyGoals coaches so they could learn what type of information would help them work strategically with participants to find employment. Participants use the reports to find out what skills employers are looking for, the requisite education level, and which local employers have the most openings. All of this gives participants a leg up in their job search and helps them create a strategy to find employment.” – Donna Wharton-Fields, Senior Fellow, Low-Wage Workers and Communities Policy Area, MDRC