left col

Economic & Employment Trends

The employment landscape is evolving at a rapid pace. Understanding and leveraging economic and employment trends can position CSUF and our students for success as they prepare to enter the workforce. Lightcast Analyst provides economic and employment data through their database of over 120 million online professional profiles, over 2.5 billion job postings, and other sources from government agencies.

right col

left col

Learn about what workforce trends data are available to CSUF faculty and staff and gather important employment landscape insights to inform your college, department, or programs.

Lightcast Analyst Reports Guide

What Key Questions Can the Analyst Reports Answer?

With their comprehensive dataset, Lightcast’s reports can answer important questions about the employment landscape, such as:

What does our competitive landscape look like with respect to the number of graduates in a given major from other higher education institutions?
What are the historical and projected trends in a given occupation in Orange County (or other areas of interest?)
Who are some of the top employers currently looking to hire?
What are the top skills that employers in our service region are seeking in their candidates?
What are the demographic and labor market trends in a given region?

What Can the Analyst Reports Be Used For?

Understanding the workforce can serve programs and colleges in important ways:

Curriculum Alignment: Access to in-demand skills from online jobs postings can support colleges in aligning their programs to help students build knowledge and skills sought by employers.
Program Development: Understanding top employers and trends in occupations can help identify new programs to develop and/or strengthen existing programs.
Career Advising: Advisors can use employment landscape data to support students seeking input on post-graduation opportunities with their degrees.
Strengthen Industry Partners: employment landscape data can help inform identification of potential industry partners and demonstrate our relevance to their workforce needs, which can in turn provide experiential learning opportunities and deepen CSUF’s connection to the employment landscape.
Recruitment and Marketing: Verifying how in-demand skills align with programs we offer can strengthen our efforts to recruit new students.

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

left col

Analyst Report Samples

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

left col

FAQs

Lightcast FAQs

What is Lightcast?

Lightcast is a company that gathers and integrates economic, labor market, demographic, education, profile, and job posting data from dozens of government and private-sector sources, to create a comprehensive and current dataset that includes both published data and detailed estimates with full United States coverage.

What resources are available for Lightcast?

Lightcast offers a knowledge base that provides resources, such as glossary, data methodology, and FAQs.

Analyst FAQs

What specific information does Analyst provide?

Lightcast Analyst is a tool that provides comprehensive employment landscape data useful for aligning programs with market demand and can help inform and prepare students as they prepare for the workforce. Analyst provides information on industries, occupations, job demands, academic programs, and demographic and economic trends.

These data are presented through various reports, including, but not limited to:

Occupation Overview: Provides an overview of jobs, earnings, academic programs, demographics and other data related to a particular occupation.
Job Posting Analytics: Explores employer demand for specific positions or skills, by region, and includes an overview of top jobs being sought, companies looking to hire, specific job titles employers use, and skills employers are looking for in their candidates.
Program Overview: Provides an overview of regional demand for an academic program offered by accredited colleges or universities, connecting the program to trends in job demands for occupations related to the academic programs.
Demographic and Workforce Overview: Explores demographic and/or workforce trends within a given region of interest to provide a general understanding of the surrounding environment.

These reports can be customized by academic program, occupation, and or region of interest, among other parameters. Please submit a Data Request to discuss and determine which customized report would address your specific needs.

Is Analyst available to all faculty and staff?

OIEP has the sole license. However, OIEP will work with you to provide labor market data that you need.

How do I request Lightcast Analyst reports?

Submit a request for reports using the Data Request Form. Please review the Lightcast Analyst Reports Guide to explore what information can be provided in the reports.

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

left col

right col

Requests for Data & Analyses

Please use the link below to request data or analyses. For questions, please contact OIEP at 657-278-2593 or [email protected].

Data Request