By Mary Wright

The Oregon Employment Department has maintained an Employment Services Home Page on the Internet for the past few years.  Last summer, they added a new site called Oregon's Labor Market Information System  (OLMIS).  Both of these sites are part of a larger system known as America's Labor Market Information System (ALMIS).  ALMIS is the Information One-Stop being developed through the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration.

There are three major components to this national electronic workforce development system: America's Job Bank, America's Talent Bank, and America's Career Infonet. OLMIS and the Oregon Employment Department's Home Page are linked to these sites and provide a substantial amount of data to the national system.

America's Job Bank (AJB) contains nearly 700,000 job listings posted directly to the Internet via local employment service offices and private employers.  All 50 states will eventually have their own Internet-accessible job bank that contributes to the national job bank.  In addition to the job listings, AJB provides links to over 4,000 employer and private placement agency websites.  As of May 4, 1998, the AJB had been accessed 632.3 million times. On that day alone, AJB was accessed over 2.3 million times.  The Web address is www.ajb.dni.us

The Oregon Employment Department (OED) has taken the lead with its own Employment Services Home Page. This site contains job listings for private employers and local government that have been posted by the State Employment Department's local field offices.  Most of these jobs are automatically posted to AJB at the employer's request. The OED site also has a database of State and Federal Government jobs. These interactive databases allow job seekers to search listings by city, state, job category, job title, job description, and various numerical codes.

Like the national job site, employers have the option of posting their job orders directly on-line from any internet location.  These job listings become part of OED's in-house database and are automatically posted to AJB.

In addition to employment services, the OED home page offers information to employers and job seekers in regard to other OED programs.  These programs include Child Care, Unemployment Insurance Benefits and Taxes, the Oregon Employer Council, Jobs Plus, and more. Check out this site at www.emp.state.or.us 

A number of job banks exist today. However, most are only available to a limited number of people in specific industries or through placement agencies. They are often hard to find and not linked to any similar systems. The OED and AJB sites provide many advantages. They are free, available to anyone, and based on a well organized system of compatible databases.

America's Talent Bank is similar in concept to AJB. Instead of a national job listing database, it is a national database of resumes.  These resumes are posted directly to the Internet by job seekers and local employment service offices. Each state will eventually have its own resume bank.  Once posted, employers can search the ATB to find candidates with skills matching the needs of their available job openings. This can be accessed through AJB or directly at www.atb.org

America' Career Infonet compliments both the AJB and ATB.  This system provides labor market information at a national level.  Delivering national wage rates, occupational and industrial employment projections, unemployment statistics, and other national employment data. This site can be used in many ways by employers and job seekers. Employers can compare national wages for given occupations with local wages.  In a tight job market this can help an employer determine what kind of wage and benefits are necessary for a successful national recruitment effort.  Job seekers or students considering relocation can find out what areas of the country need people with their skills and what kind of wages to expect. This site is located at www.acinet.org and linked directly to the AJB Home Page.

Oregon's Labor Market Information System offers the same kinds of data as its national counterpart and more. This site provides information concerning Oregon's labor markets.  The OLMIS web site was designed and developed by Oregon Employment Department staff.  It was one of the first labor market information systems to go on-line within ALMIS and is being used as a model by other States.

OLMIS is being used by Employers, Job Seekers, Students, and Policy Makers.  Information can be accessed in many ways from several interactive databases, on-line publications, downloads, and links to other related sites.  It is organized in various levels of detail to answer simple questions or to provide in depth analysis on various topics.  These topics include Education, Skills, Wages, Industry, Unemployment, Income, Cost of Living, Job Out Look, and Population.

The Occupational Information Center, located on OLMIS, is one of the most popular interactive databases among job seekers and employers. The user selects a specific occupation from a database of over 800. Once the occupation has been selected, the user has access to a wide range of information about the specific job including: a description of duties, skill sets, statewide wages, necessary training and education, regional employment levels, employment projections, links to schools offering training for the job, and list of occupations with similar skills.  This is just one small part of OLMIS.

There is more to OLMIS than would be appropriate for listing in this article.  However, the features listed below do reflect the overall content and information available on OLMIS.

• ALMIS Northwest Employer Database


• Consumer Price Index (CPI) Calculator


• Current Employment by Industry


• Population Information


• Regional Information Center (Oregon Counties)


• Skill Sets by Occupation


• Access to OED publications such as Labor Trends and Regional Economic Profiles


• Links to many related sites such as the U.S. Census Bureau and BLS