Workforce agencies are facing urgent, complex challenges, from persistent job openings and labor market disconnects to growing economic pressures. Many states still struggle with legacy systems that weren’t designed to support the data-informed decisions leaders need to take meaningful action.
The good news is that the data needed to overcome these challenges is already there. The bad news is that workforce agencies often are unable to act upon the insights within the data. As someone with direct experience with workforce systems and agencies, I know the frustration of having the data but being unable to use it.
This must change.
We don’t need more data. We need ownership, integration, and action. Workforce longitudinal data systems (WLDS) will take us there. We at Resultant believe that better outcomes are built together. WLDS are essential to a strategy that brings people, data, and policy together to enable informed decisions and create lasting, positive change.
Education-led to workforce-led: a data strategy shift
Many states have invested in education-led state longitudinal data systems (SLDS). Workforce agencies have rich data, but it’s sometimes locked in siloed workforce and unemployment programs with limited or cumbersome data-sharing processes. This prevents states from extracting value from data to support workforce and economic development initiatives.
Macroeconomic trends like complex economic conditions, finite resources, disruptive technologies, and evolving constituent engagement needs demand workforce data aggregation and system modernization. This is why states like Vermont are flipping the script from the status quo, putting workforce agencies in the driver’s seat to lead statewide data efforts that enable meaningful progress.
In Vermont, bill H.707 established:
- A new Office of Workforce Strategy and Development reporting directly to the Governor
- A data trust task force to enable secure, governed, cross-agency data sharing
- An outcome-based governance structure that empowers business voices and directs the Chief Performance Officer to track and report on workforce impact
This is a prime example of how states can leverage workforce data as a trusted resource and a strategic asset, not just a reporting requirement. That’s how transformation begins.
WLDS use cases deliver value and drive change
There are ways WLDS can help your workforce agency right now by enabling data-driven decision making. This will make it possible to not only support your constituents and track progress, but also identify opportunities for improvement, optimize resource allocation, and measure ROI.
These are just four examples of what can be accomplished with WLDS:
Use Case 1: Measure ROI for Workforce Programs
A WLDS can connect longitudinal and wage data to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of workforce programs, tracking participant outcomes, employment stability, and earnings over time to assess which programs deliver the greatest return on investment.
Use Case 2: Resource Allocation and Program Models and Design
Agencies can use WLDS insights to understand regional service usage, identify under- or over-utilized facilities, and inform decisions like reassigning staff or shifting from physical job centers to hybrid or virtual models, ensuring resources align with real demand.
Use Case 3: Career and Training Pathways
Stop making people start over. Through AI-driven analysis in a WLDS, a tool like Resultant’s Workforce Recommendation Engine can identify occupation and training recommendations and career pathways that align with an individual’s skills, experience, and interests, resulting in improved employment outcomes.
Use Case 4: Post-graduation outcome tracking
WLDS can provide the missing link between education and employment data to show where graduates land after completing training or degree programs, providing insight into employment rates, wage progression, industry placement, and how well programs prepare individuals for the workforce.
WLDS sees the data you already have as a platform for personalized, coordinated service delivery.
Disruption, innovation, and efficiency: the true value WLDS unlocks
The Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) is a federal collaborative partnership between the Departments of Labor and Education supporting the development and improvement of longitudinal administrative databases that integrate workforce data and education data. The primary goal of WDQI is for states to use their longitudinal data systems to follow individuals through school and their work life, helping constituents select training and education programs that align with their needs and goals. Round 10 grant applications are open through May 27, 2025.
The objectives of WDQI directly align with WLDS.
- Disruption: WLDS break silos and frees agencies from the “this is how we’ve always done it” mindset that holds states back. WLDS gives agencies the full picture view, including education, employment, training, and outcomes.
- Innovation: Pairing WLDS with tools like Resultant’s Workforce Recommendation Engine empowers jobseekers to make smarter, faster choices with clarity and confidence based on data-backed evidence of what’s actually worked for people like them.
- Efficiency: By optimizing service delivery models, workforce agencies can meet citizens where they are, serve more people, and focus staffing and resources where they’re needed most. When data flows, systems do, too.
How to remove barriers to progress
Data lives in too many disparate systems owned by too many separate groups, creating bottlenecks that hold states back. Workforce data is seen as transactional rather than a strategic asset. While many states want change, there’s no roadmap to get there.
Fortunately, change doesn’t require a massive overhaul. The first step is to identify your highest-leverage opportunities. Resultant’s complimentary Workforce Strategy Workshop can help.
About the workshop:
- Built for state workforce leaders, CIOs, and executive teams
- Maps where you are now and where WLDS can take you
- Delivers an actionable roadmap, without guesswork
We don’t need more data. We need better outcomes.
Disruption, innovation, and efficiency aren’t just buzzwords. They’re the outcomes that workforce agencies are expected to deliver. A WLDS gives you the means to achieve them.
Don’t wait for a perfect system. Don’t wait for someone else to own it. The workforce system is already rich with data. A WLDS turns data into strategy, complexity into clarity, and uncertainty into confidence.
Explore the Workforce Strategy Workshop and see how our team can help you overcome your toughest workforce challenges.
Let’s lead the next era, together.
