Many problems currently affect the labour market; from how job or career prospects are identified and then secured to knowing how and when to gain new skills. What we need are smarter approaches to understanding and improving labour markets.

At Nesta we think that some of the current and future challenges of labour markets can be solved through:

• Mobilising labour market information.
• Building resilient partnerships that allow stakeholders to collectively respond to labour market demands.
• Accelerating the development of new tools and services for labour market navigation.

Open Jobs will help education providers, current and future workforce participants, and businesses whose decisions relate to hiring and training make better labour market decisions. By ‘better’ we mean decisions that are based on data-driven information that is rich, timely, accurate and detailed. As part of Nesta's work for the ONS's new Economic Statistic Centre of Excellence (ESCoE), we’re already helping to do this by improving occupation classification and developing a skills taxonomy.

Initially, Open Jobs will involve collaboration with an array of public and private stakeholders. To achieve our vision, we’re taking action on three strands—research, experimentation and investment:

1. Research: Through research we will open up new data and use machine learning to provide new insights on the labour market of today and tomorrow.
2. Experimentation: Using labour market information in collaboration with national and local partners, we develop solutions to help address local challenges on skills, careers and jobs.
3. Policy: By advocating for more open and efficient use of data to inform labour market policy we will broaden access to new insights that are tailored to fit user needs.

The end result should be that anyone making decisions about skills, careers and jobs can access the best possible data, analysis and interpretation of what is currently happening in labour markets and how this is likely to change in the future.

Over the last few years Nesta has been involved in multiple projects and programmes concerned with labour markets, jobs and skills. The primary aim has been to help people navigate through a period of turbulence, with many jobs disappearing and new skills being required. We have also demonstrated some of the building blocks for this new approach through prototypes.

Work with us

We actively want to work with others to improve labour markets, open up new sources of data and develop new methods and platforms that can then become part of the everyday toolkit for job seekers, employers and public agencies. We offer a range of collaboration options, from funding to joint research.

• Explorative: Our focus is on exploring new datasets and new methods
• Open: Our charitable status compels us to be open and ensures we reach a broad audience
• Independent: Our independence allows us to work with a large range of organisations
• Ethical: We take a responsible approach to collecting and processing data
• Rigorous: We’re committed to producing transparent research that is academically rigorous

Get in touch

If you are interested in working with us:

For general inquiries, you can reach us by emailing [email protected]

For enquiries about:

• Data-driven research: Jyldyz Djumalieva [email protected]
• City and regional pilots and programmes: Jack Orlik [email protected]
• Investment opportunities: [email protected]