The University of Chicago
To facilitate workforce research by brokering, combining, documenting, and making available for study administrative data about labor markets from a variety of sources
This grant supports a project by data scientist Matthew Gee and labor economist Iona Marinescu to create an administrative data research facility that will compile high-quality private administrative data on various aspects of the U.S. labor force. Gee and Marinescu’s Workforce Data Initiative will partner with private firms that have valuable administrative data on U.S. workers, including ADP, LinkedIn, Glass Door, O*Net, and CareerBuilder, combine these datasets with relevant publicly available data, and modify and “munge” these data into forms useable by researchers. The resulting datasets will constitute a valuable new resource for economists looking to answer pertinent questions on a host of important issues, including the post-2008 economic recovery, the resilience of local job markets, patterns in layoffs, and wage stickiness.