What is Lightcast?
Lightcast is a global labor market analytics company that turns raw labor market data into actionable workforce intelligence. Institutions, employers, and partners (like uConnect!) rely on Lightcast to make informed decisions about education, talent, and workforce trends. We partner with them so their data fuels our Labor Market Insights (LMI) module.
In short, Lightcast:
- Combines dozens of trusted public and proprietary datasets into one unified platform
- Processes millions of job postings to surface hiring demand, workforce trends, and emerging skills
- Applies statistical modeling, machine learning, and quality assurance to keep insights accurate and reliable
- Powers labor market intelligence through the data integrations you see in your uConnect platform
Test it our live on our demo site!
Where the Data Comes From
Lightcast blends several types of data sources to build a complete, current picture of the labor market:
Government Data: Trusted federal sources — including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) — provide a reliable foundation for labor market insights.
Real-Time Job Postings: Millions of online job postings are collected from employer career sites and job boards, giving you a current view of hiring demand, in-demand skills, occupations, and workforce trends — not just historical snapshots.
Education Data: Data on degree completions, institutions, academic programs, and career pathways helps connect what students are studying to real workforce outcomes.
Skills Intelligence: Using Lightcast's proprietary skills taxonomy, skills are extracted and standardized from job postings, creating a common language across jobs, education, and training. This is what allows your students to see how their coursework and experience connect to real, in-demand skills.
What Makes Lightcast Different
Rather than just aggregating data from different places, Lightcast transforms it into something usable:
- Deduplicates millions of job postings so counts aren't inflated
- Normalizes occupations, employers, skills, and industries so data is comparable across sources
- Applies AI-powered taxonomies for consistency
- Integrates public and proprietary datasets into one clean dataset
- Continuously refreshes insights as the labor market shifts
The result: current, consistent, decision-ready labor market intelligence — not just raw numbers.
"Is this just O*NET?"
Great question, and one we hear often! No — while O*NET is a valuable occupational framework, Lightcast goes well beyond it.
|
O*NET |
Lightcast |
|---|---|
|
Occupational reference database |
Integrated labor market intelligence platform |
|
Updated periodically |
Real-time job postings plus regularly refreshed datasets |
|
Focuses on occupations |
Occupations, industries, skills, wages, supply, demand, and education |
|
Reference taxonomy |
Analytics, forecasting, and labor market insights |
Why This Matters for Your Students
With the LMI module in uConnect, you and your students can:
- Use AI Search to answer labor market related questions from students and stakeholders
- Access labor market intelligence built from dozens of trusted public and proprietary sources
- See real-time hiring demand and emerging workforce trends
- Explore occupations, skills, wages, education, industries, and labor market dynamics — all in one place
- Get current labor market insights right within your uConnect platform, no extra tools needed
Have More Questions?
Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or the uConnect Support Team — we're happy to walk through how Labor Market Insights can support your students and your career center's goals.