(Video) SODA Symposium: Data Literacy and Evidence Building – Birds of a Feather
Labor economists speak on national data efforts
On January 23, several labor economists and data scientists from across the country spoke at the first Birds of a Feather symposium, which seeks to improve connections and knowledge-sharing across discrete teams working on common issues. This symposium focused on defining, measuring, and analyzing high quality jobs and workplaces.
Included among the speakers were Harry Holzer, a labor economist with Brookings; Bruce Weinberg, from Ohio State University; Angie Tombari, from University of Kentucky; Dana Brandt, from Rhode Island’s State Longitudinal Systems; Yvette Chocolaad, from NASWA; and Jessica Cunningham, from the Coleridge Initiative.
Speakers mainly shared their recent work using state-level wage and unemployment linked data, which allows researchers to follow individuals and better control for the effects of worker skill in evaluating workplaces and programs.
“We’re using a technology-agnostic approach. The key to this approach is to follow the people, so that it’s a person-based approach and it’s a community-driven approach,” Weinberg said.
Watch the full video here.