We could step into a forest together and in a short time and with very little effort fill a basket with leaves. The problem with that is leaves aren’t worth anything. If we want to do something valuable, such as filling the basket with hickory nuts or morel mushrooms, we’d have to walk farther and search harder. The challenge of delivering meaningful labor market information is like that. Data and information are abundant, and it would be very easy to fill 100 pages or more with charts and tables and text. But, without sufficient care, those hundred pages would be just so many leaves.

There was a time when the leaves were few and far between. Labor market information was limited to a few sources that released a few numbers a few times a year. But no longer. The new challenge of the information age is to sift through an enormous number of extensive and detailed data sets and select only the most meaningful bits for display. To fill a dozen or a hundred pages with data and information has become quite easy. But to supply an equal amount of knowledge is still a task. Data are abundant but, as astronomer and computer systems administrator Clifford Stoll puts it, data are not information. We can compare our region’s current performance to that of previous years. We can compare it to that of other cities, or to the state or the United States. We can disaggregate the performance in a variety of ways: by race, by education level, by industry, by urban versus suburban. The possibilities are vast. But not all these possibilities yield useful information.

The Indianapolis Private Industry Council takes seriously its role as the “go to” source for workforce development in Marion County and Central Indiana. One way IPIC serves the community is by disseminating labor market information – but only if the information conveys knowledge that leads to understanding and, ultimately, to wisdom. This State of the Workforce report, in a new format, strives to do that.

This report has a deliberate focus on the labor supply. It doesn’t say much about the industries and employers of Indianapolis and Central Indiana – or their demand for workers. For that, you can refer to IPIC’s labor market studies, issued in 2006 and 2007. That series of reports deals with advanced manufacturing; life sciences and health services; logistics; automotive and motor sports; finance and insurance; construction; and retail, accommodations and food services. An update about those industries and the rest of the Central Indiana economy is due later in 2008. But for now, the focus is on the supply of workers.

Also, the focus of this report is on Indianapolis and Marion County. The industry studies encompass the wider, nine-county Central Indiana region, which makes sense in an area where cross-county commuting is as common as it is here. From the industry perspective, the county boundaries have little meaning. Employers pay little or no attention to where their applicants live. But from the workforce supply point of view, the differences between Marion County and the suburban counties around it are significant and growing wider. As the Workforce Investment Board for Marion County, IPIC is especially responsible to serve the county’s residents, so we must look at the people of Indianapolis and how they are prepared for functioning in the local and regional labor market.