INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation (Chamber Foundation) and the T3 Innovation Network (T3 Network) launched the Jobs and Employment Data Exchange (JEDx) initiative in 2021 to develop a public-private approach for collecting and using standards-based jobs and employment data. JEDx builds on the Chamber Foundation’s Job Data Exchange (JDX) initiative to promote public-private standards for job descriptions and postings, and the T3 Network’s Employment and Earnings Records Standards Project to develop and use public-private standards for comprehensive employment and earnings records. Both the JDX and the T3 Network efforts were done in cooperation with the HR Open Standards Consortium and other public and private partners.
The JEDx initiative started with a two-month planning phase with input from a public-private advisory committee. This planning phase identified four project priorities:
Project 1: Improving federal and state reporting
Project 2: Improving job description data for sharing and use in career pathway partnerships
Project 3: Improving job posting data for search
Project 4: Empowering workers/learners to use employment records for job and government program and benefit applications
In launching the JEDx design phase, the Chamber Foundation focused first on Project 1, Improving Federal and State Reporting starting with Unemployment Insurance (UI) reporting. This project has the following objectives:
Primary Objectives
• Reduce federal and state reporting costs for employers and government agencies
• Improve data quality and timeliness in federal and state government reporting
• Provide better data for improved public and private workforce analytics and program administration applications
Secondary Objectives (connections to future projects) -- Ensure that employers and HR technology service providers take a consistent approach in:
• Sharing and using job description data in career pathways (Project 2)
• Improving job posting data for search (Project 3)
• Providing workers/learners with their own LERs for job applications and government programs and benefits (Project 4)
To guide the Project 1 design phase, the Chamber Foundation established a national, public-private JEDx Steering Committee composed of representatives from national, state, and regional organizations as well as public and private partners from seven states that agreed to participate on the steering committee and technical workgroups and explore future options for pilot-testing. The seven participating states were: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Texas.
The Chamber Foundation also established two technical workgroups addressing: (1) data and applications priorities, and (2) system architecture. In addition, the Chamber Foundation received funding from the Sloan Foundation for the JEDx Research Enrichment Project (JEDx-REP) to engage the research community in identifying data needs and exploring how to improve access while protecting privacy.
The first three steering committee meetings focused on clarifying Project 1 objectives and exploring the current state and future vision of federal and state reporting. These meetings also provided updates from the two technical workgroups which circulated draft reports for review and comment prior to the development of this project report.
The final steering committee meeting discussed the draft design phase report. This final design phase report first highlights the project objectives and current state and future vision of federal and state reporting. It then summarizes the reports issued by each workgroup and interim findings from the Sloan-funded JEDxREP. The report concludes with recommendations for Project 1 next steps from November 2022 to March 2023 that provide a bridge into the pilot phase in 2023.
PROJECT 1--FEDERAL AND STATE REPORTING: WHERE WE ARE NOW AND FUTURE VISION
The Project 1 design phase began with an analysis of current federal and state reporting systems including UI. As shown in Figure 1, nearly 200 different systems collect employment and jobs data from employers in the United States. Many of these systems have weaknesses that stymie important potential uses of the data, including inconsistent definitions, lack of timeliness, barriers to access, and inadequate geographic specificity, as well as some critical data simply not being available. Many of these systems are based on employer surveys, while a few are based on administrative record systems collecting data from virtually all employers including UI reporting. Among these systems, redundancies in collection processes and out-of-date technologies impose higher costs than are necessary on the employers that report the data and on governments that collect, clean, and compile them. The 53 jurisdictions that administer UI programs represent about one quarter of the employment data collection systems in the country. Each one is unique and reflects many of the system shortcomings noted above. However, as they are administrative data systems, they offer advantages as starting points for exploring new approaches to data collection serving broad needs.
As discussed in the first three steering committee meetings, JEDx seeks to move forward with a vision of providing higher value and lower costs (See Figure 2). This future vision is moving toward a:
• Comprehensive, standard set of employer data meeting requirements for reporting and high-value public and private uses
• Submitted as one report using a standard system architecture (e.g., APIs)
• Governed by a public-private data trust to expand public and private use and protect employer and worker privacy
Design Phase report:
https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/USCCF_JEDx_Design%20Phase%20Report_ViewOnly.pdf
JEDx:
https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/JEDx
HR Open Standards:
https://www.hropenstandards.org