As the Senate holds a hearing next week on the nomination of Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be Secretary of Labor, we hope to see a much-needed focus on the improvements our nation’s data systems need to power economic mobility.
Chavez-DeRemer is no stranger to workforce issues, having addressed them both during her service on the House Education and Workforce Committee and her tenure as mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon. Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee should use their platform not just to elevate the importance of strengthening our nation’s workforce—but to specifically encourage the next Secretary to prioritize improvements in data collection, integration, and transparency.
As it stands, available public data sources and structures cannot answer fundamental questions about which education and training programs yield positive returns on learner and taxpayer investments, which programs are most effective in meeting employer needs, and where training providers should develop new programs to meet the skill needs of high-demand and growing industries. Policymakers, educators, and employers need comprehensive, real-time data to build a workforce system that is agile and responsive to the demands of a rapidly evolving economy. This need is only heightened by the rise of artificial intelligence and the changes it may bring.
During next week’s confirmation hearing, we urge senators to highlight opportunities for the Department of Labor (DOL) to build a workforce data system capable of supporting the president’s agenda for investing in American workers and expanding pathways to family-sustaining jobs. To that end, here are six questions about data, evidence, and the workforce system committee members should ask nominee Chavez-DeRemer:
1. What steps would you take to ensure the Labor Department improves cross-agency collaboration around data sharing, quality, and transparency, particularly to assess return on investment, track employment outcomes, and ensure public access to this information?
DOL oversees many of our nation’s workforce development programs, but a significant number of workforce programs fall under the Departments of Education, Commerce, and Health and Human Services, among other agencies. There is no central body to coordinate the tracking and sharing of wage information or other employment outcomes across these federally-funded programs. The lack of a coordinated and coherent data collection strategy makes it difficult to understand program quality, alignment between programs and employer needs, and the extent to which federal investments are strengthening state, regional, and local economies. The next Labor Secretary must develop a strong partnership with other agency heads to support the coordinated, safe, and timely sharing of data and ensure the public workforce system is as effective as possible.
2. As secretary, how would you leverage the department’s authority and resources to provide greater transparency into program performance data, particularly outcomes from eligible training provider programs authorized under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)?
Earlier this year, the department updated existing guidance (TEGL 11-19, Change 2) to provide more explicit guidelines for the maintenance of eligible training provider lists, requiring providers to more comprehensively report on all required data. This change can help ensure greater transparency into program quality for students and employers, and clarity for providers about the desired outcomes for federally-funded skills development. However, the next secretary must ensure the changes outlined in this TEGL are implemented with fidelity so state agencies and local workforce boards can collect and use the reported program performance data effectively to help eligible programs improve and to empower working learners to use this data to assess program options and navigate their careers with confidence.
3. How will you encourage the department to work with states, including statewide longitudinal data systems, to ensure they safely use and share data about employment outcomes to inform investments and drive program improvement?
States struggle to provide clear information about the quality, effectiveness, and value of education and training programs. This is due in part to misconceptions about permitted access to federal data and their ability to connect data across agencies and sectors. While federal law rarely prohibits states from integrating data across education and workforce sectors, and the use of federal data for such linkages is generally allowable, a lack of clear guidance and regulations inhibits state action.
The next secretary should tackle this issue head-on through administrative actions that provide states clarity or direct approval for sharing non-personally identifiable postsecondary enrollment data across state lines and for linking wage and employment records with workforce system data while protecting privacy. For instance, the secretary can have DOL work with states and their longitudinal data systems to facilitate access to key federal aggregate data sources like Census Bureau records and the National Directory of New Hires.
4. What steps will you take as secretary to advance the Labor Department’s long-standing commitment to the use of data and evidence in policy and funding decisions?
Thanks in part to the department’s efforts to develop resources such as the Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research, we know that certain workforce development strategies—such as sectoral training programs, employment social enterprises, and apprenticeships—produce meaningful returns on investment for both the government and individuals. However, many interventions remain under-studied. Inconsistencies in the use and collection of administrative data hinder agencies’ ability to use evidence proactively.
With the DOL evaluation plan up for renewal in 2025 and its evidence-building plan up for renewal in 2026, the next secretary has an opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to data and evidence-based decision making by defining the agency’s priorities for building evidence, outlining a plan for addressing key challenges in effective data gathering and use, and allocating funds to support a robust data, evaluation, and evidence system.
5. How will you ensure that core informational resources such as those overseen by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are sustained and expanded so that state agencies and local workforce boards have better access to real-time labor market information?
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) series is one of the only federal data sources that tracks labor demand. However, these reports are published with a five- or six-week lag, hindering policymakers’ ability to understand and respond to economic shifts in real time. Further, the data available through JOLTS only skims the surface of labor market issues. By expanding the scope of the survey to cover issues like the occupations or wages of new hires, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) could provide a more complete picture of labor market issues.
In the absence of publicly available data, workforce entities are forced to invest in costly proprietary data, if they have the resources, while those that don’t rely on outdated information—constraining them to a reactive approach with limited ability to anticipate and plan for labor market shifts. The next secretary should work to enhance data sources like JOLTS that can affordably broaden access to real-time insights, improving the workforce systems’ ability to make timely informed decisions about aligning training to local employer demand.
6. Under your leadership, how will DOL increase transparency and the public’s understanding of not just credentials but also the skills and competencies underlying those credentials?
The American economy continues to rapidly transform. Credentials, including certifications, certificates, licenses, badges, degrees, apprenticeships, and more, play an essential role in assessing and validating the knowledge and skills needed for success. With over one million unique credentials now in use throughout the United States, all stakeholders need a reliable way to understand the value of each credential, including how it will help to provide them a return on investment and increase productivity.
Over half of all states are making progress towards the creation of credential registries—dynamic catalogues of the credentials and skills available in a state, including comprehensive, transparent, and accurate information regarding their value. And the department is well-positioned to lead on supporting efforts to develop the infrastructure required to support a skills-based economy, such as modernizing the agency’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database.
By supporting state efforts and modernizing DOL’s infrastructure, the next secretary can play an important role in helping more Americans understand the skills and competencies needed for success.
Note: This op-ed was updated to reflect the fact that Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation hearing has been moved to February 19, due to winter weather in D.C.
Maria Flynn is president and CEO of Jobs for the Future, and Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger is president and CEO of the Data Quality Campaign.