Lightcast Global Research Collaborations
How our data is being used in research by some of the most important and influential organisations in the world
About Lightcast Global Research Collaborations
Lightcast has a long and impressive history of creating and facilitating labour market research across the globe. Our data and insights are used by some of the most influential organisations on the planet to answer the most pressing labour market questions. Below you'll find a small snapshot of this work, both as Lightcast and our pre-merger companies - EMSI and Burning Glass - relating to intergovernmental organisations, public policy, think tanks, research institutions, professional bodies, and academic research. If you think our data might be able to help your organisation answer the labour market-related questions it is facing, contact us to discuss.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is an agency of the United Nations whose mission is to build peace through international cooperation. In The Weight of Words: Gendered Language and Women's Participation and Positioning in the Labor Market, Lightcast job postings in six countries were analysed for masculine and feminine-coded words, to shed light on the extent to which words matter in fostering or otherwise hindering the participation and positioning of women in the labour market.
OECD
The mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is to build better policies for better lives. In a 2023 report – Building a Skilled Cyber Security Workforce in Five Countries – Lightcast’s job postings were analysed to identify demand for cybersecurity professionals across Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, including the changes in the types of skills being requested by enterprises in the cybersecurity sector.
World Bank
With 189 member countries, the World Bank Group is a global partnership with a mission to reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries. In a 2022 paper - The Demand for Digital and Complementary Skills in Southeast Asia - their researchers used our job postings data to investigate the extent to which digital and non-digital skills are complements in digital and non-digital occupations, and how these skills are distributed across four Southeast Asian labour markets.
CEDEFOP
The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) is an EU agency with a mission of improving vocational education and training (VET) through effective policy-making. Their joint symposium with the OECD in 2023 brought together 100 policy-makers, social partners, practitioners and researchers from around the world to discuss the digital transition relating to apprenticeships, with Lightcast’s economists invited to present on “How the digital transformation is changing demand for skills in apprenticeship-typical occupations.”
DCMS
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a department of the British Government with particular responsibility for culture, sport, and certain aspects of the media in the UK. This report - No Longer Optional: Employer Demand for Digital Skills - seeks to understand demand for digital skills, with an analysis of millions of online job adverts in the UK used to provide an overview of digital skills demand, and offer a useful basis to inform an evidence-based skills development policy.
JRC
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the European Commission’s research unit, dedicated to providing independent advice to support the policies of the European Union. In a 2022 study - Digital Skills for All? - JRC used Lightcast data to track demand for digital skills across occupations. Their report identified a number of trends, including the fact that advanced digital skills pay notable wage premia, and that digital transformation is occurring at very different speeds and scales between basic and advanced digital skills.
Brookings
Brookings is a nonprofit Think Tank with a mission to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels. In a 2021 report - Moving up: Promoting Workers’ Economic Mobility Using Network Analysis - our data was used in an analysis of occupation-to-occupation transitions, in order to better understand mobility gaps in the labour market and give evidence-based insights for the kinds of interventions that could help close these gaps.
Bruegel
Established in 2005, Bruegel is an independent think tank with a mission is to improve the quality of economic policy with open and fact-based research, analysis and debate. In 2024, they published the Twin Transition Dashboard as part of their Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe project. The tool uses Lightcast’s job postings data to show changing skills demand for AI and green jobs across all 27 EU member countries, including insights on education levels, growth skills, and a cross-country comparison.
Centre for Cities
Established in 2005, Centre for Cities is dedicated to improving the economies of the UK's largest cities and towns. In this report - Can Cities Outsmart the Robots: The Future of Skills in UK Cities - our data was used to build a detailed picture of changing skills demand in city labour markets, in order to answer questions such as which skills will be needed in the future labour market, how are cities are responding, and what needs to happen to ensure individuals have the skills to succeed.
Mitsubishi Research Institute
The Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI) provides public and private sectors with research, consulting, and ICT solutions to resolve societal issues. In a 2023 report - Policy Proposal for a Labor Market Common Language - MRI partnered with Lightcast to assess skills demand in Japan, calling for a common skill-based language and accompanying reforms for Japan to invigorate its labour market and revitalise its workforce.
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Shaping the Future of Work Initiative is a research organisation that applies economics research to identify innovative ways to move the labour market onto a more equitable trajectory. In a 2022 paper - Artificial Intelligence and Jobs: Evidence from Online Vacancies - their researchers looked at the impact of AI on labour markets, using our job postings data to understand AI adoption in the US and related skill requirements.
CESifo
CESIFO is a global, independent research network of prominent economists from across the world with a broad spectrum of specialisms. In a 2023 research piece – Skills or Degree? The Rise of Skill-Based Hiring for AI and Green Jobs – they analysed Lightcast’s time series dataset of online job vacancies to provide evidence that employers have started so-called “skill-based hiring” for AI and green roles, as more flexible hiring practices allow them to increase the available talent pool.
WEC
The World Employment Confederation (WEC) is the voice of the private employment services industry at the global level, representing national federations as well as workforce solutions companies from across the world. Working with WEC as their labour market intelligence partner, Lightcast has developed The Online Labour Market GPS - a powerful, AI-based tool that allows both WEC and its members to analyse the online staffing market at global and national levels, so augmenting their own research, analysis and communication capabilities.
The Royal Society
The Royal Society is the world's oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, and is dedicated to promoting excellence in science for the benefit of humanity. This report - Regional Absorptive Capacity: The Skills Dimension - draws on our job postings data to examine the economy and labour force of the UK, its constituent nations and regions, plus a selection of six local economies, in order to understand the differences in skills supply and demand that exist both between and within UK regions.
Australian Computer Society
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) is the professional association for Australia’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector with over 47,000 members across business, government and education. In a joint 2022 report - ACS guide to IT professions - Lightcast analysed millions of Australian job postings to give a comprehensive picture of the skills, wages, demand and other trends in the industry since 2016.
Stanford University
Founded almost 150 years ago, Stanford is one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions, ranked in the top 5 universities in the world by both Times Higher Education and QS. In a report from the university’s Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) – Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2024 – we contributed data on demand for AI-related skills in labour markets across the globe, along with a deep dive into AI skills trends in the United States.
University of Florence
With origins dating back to the Florentine Republic in 1321, the University of Florence now comprises 12 schools with around 50,000 students. In Skill Similarities Across Italian Regions, their Department of Statistics, Computer Science, and Applications used Lightcast data for 2019-2020 to explore variations in skills in the Italian labour market, and to understand similarities in the profiles of skills at the regional level.
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics (LSE) is a social science specialist university, currently ranked in the top 50 universities by both QS and Times Higher Education. In their 2023 report - Skills and Wage Gaps in the Low-Carbon Transition - the authors analysed the task content of jobs using Lightcast job postings data, which enabled them to understand demand for low-carbon jobs and identify emerging skill gaps in the low-carbon transition.
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