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Workforce Intelligence

In an era of rapid economic shifts, the bridge between the classroom and the career has never been more vital. Workforce Intelligence provides faculty and administrators with the data-driven insights necessary to ensure our programs remain relevant, competitive, and impactful. Whether you are seeking to validate a new degree or optimize an existing curriculum, our services provide the evidence base needed for informed decision-making.

Available Intelligence Reports

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Our services are powered by Lightcast.

Please note: To ensure the highest quality of analysis, Opportunity Analysis and Custom Projects typically require a discovery meeting to align on goals and timelines.

Opportunity Analysis

A comprehensive, integrated research report designed to evaluate the viability of a proposed academic or professional development program. This goes beyond raw data to provide a “go/no-go” recommendation based  on competitive landscape, employer demand, and regional skill gaps from Lightcast.

Individual Reports

Targeted access to specific Lightcast data or standard labor market reports without additional synthesis. This service provides the “raw numbers” for stakeholders who need specific data (e.g., job postings, median earnings, or projected growth) for their own analysis.

Custom Project

High-touch research and analysis tailored to unique workforce questions that fall outside standard Lightcast reporting. This includes specialized topical deep-dives, occupational or skills-based studies, or cross-disciplinary analysis requiring a bespoke methodology and report structure.

Workforce Intelligence Compass

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The Workforce Intelligence Compass is built on a set of Google’s NotebookLMs containing our curated sources that come from Lightcast reports and select internal and external trusted reference material.

Google NotebookLM

Google NotebookLM is an AI-powered research and note-taking assistant designed to help you interact with the information you trust most. Unlike traditional AI chatbots that draw from the entire internet, NotebookLM is “source-grounded.” It builds its intelligence exclusively from the documents you provide, significantly reducing the risk of “hallucinations” and ensuring that every insight is backed by your specific data.

In short, NotebookLM functions as a virtual thinking partner that can summarize thousands of pages, identify hidden patterns across multiple files, and generate structured content instantly.

Learn more about NotebookLM
Available Compass Resources

The resources are organized by topical category. Lightcast resources: alumni, company, industry, job posting, occupation, programs, region, and skills. External resources: investor and workforce.

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Access to Compass NotebookLMs

Use the link below to request access to individual NotebookLMs. Under Available Intelligence Reports, please select Request Access to WI Compass. A member of the Strategy Team will reach out to you about your specific research needs.

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Workforce Intelligence Resources

The workforce intelligence resources below are curated by the School of Professional Studies (SPS) Strategy Team. They are periodically refreshed. Please note: Links to files only available to those with UNC Charlotte credentials.

Lightcast

Faulty Lines
Beyond the Buzz (AI)
The Rising Storm

World Economic Forum

Jobs of Tomorrow
Putting Skills First
Future of Jobs Report

McKinsey

Agents, Robots and Us
Superagency in the Workplace
The Agentic Organization

Get Started

Begin your workforce intelligence journey by scheduling an initial consultation to discuss your specific needs and objectives. Or if you already know which report you need and can provide the necessary analysis criteria, please complete our request form. Report delivery typically takes two weeks.

Lightcast: Comprehensive Industry Intelligence

Lightcast is the global leader in labor market analytics, providing a comprehensive "real-time" view of the economy. By aggregating data from over 18 billion data points—including government statistics (BLS, Census), online job postings, and professional social profiles—Lightcast allows us to map the intersection of education and employment with high precision.

Analyst

Analyst is the flagship platform used for regional economic and workforce research. It serves as a macro lens, allowing us to see what is happening in the labor market right now and what is projected for the future.

  • Market Demand: Track which industries are growing and which occupations are in high demand within our specific region.
  • Skill Gap Analysis: Identify the exact technical and human skills employers are asking for in job postings to ensure our curricula remain modern.
  • Competitive Landscape: Evaluate the “supply” of graduates from peer institutions to determine if a market is underserved or over-saturated.
Alumni Pathways

While Analyst looks at the market, the Alumni Data tool looks at our specific impact. It uses a massive database of professional profiles to track where our graduates actually go after they leave our institution.

  • Career Trajectories: See the real-world job titles and career progressions of our alumni 5, 10, and 20 years post-graduation.
  • Employer Insights: Identify the top companies and organizations hiring our graduates, providing a roadmap for potential corporate partnerships.
  • Migration Patterns: Analyze whether our graduates are staying in the region to support the local economy or migrating to other markets.
  • Proof of Value: Transform anecdotal “success stories” into hard data that demonstrates the Return on Investment (ROI) of our programs to prospective students and accreditors.
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Google NotebookLM

Google NotebookLM is an AI-powered research and note-taking assistant designed to help you interact with the information you trust most. Unlike traditional AI chatbots that draw from the entire internet, NotebookLM is "source-grounded." It builds its intelligence exclusively from the documents you provide, significantly reducing the risk of "hallucinations" and ensuring that every insight is backed by your specific data. It functions as a virtual thinking partner that can summarize thousands of pages, identify hidden patterns across multiple files, and generate structured content instantly. The three core components are:

Sources
The Sources panel is where you define the “universe” of information for your project. It is the foundation of the tool.
Explore Sources
Queries
The Queries or Chat panel is the interactive engine where you “interrogate” your data.
Explore Queries
Studio
The Studio panel is the creative engine where your research is synthesized into professional-grade artifacts.
Explore Studio
Sources

The Sources panel is where you define the “universe” of information for your project. This is the foundation of the tool.

  • What goes here: You can upload PDFs, text files, or Markdown documents, or link directly to Google Docs, Google Slides, website URLs, and even YouTube video transcripts.
  • How it works: Once uploaded, NotebookLM “reads” and indexes these sources. You can toggle individual sources on or off to narrow the AI’s focus to specific documents for a particular query.
Queries

The Queries or Chat panel is the interactive engine where you “interrogate” your data. Instead of searching for keywords, you ask natural language questions.

  • Key Feature: Every response provided in the chat includes inline citations. When the AI makes a claim, it provides a clickable number that takes you directly to the exact passage in your source document, ensuring total transparency and easy fact-checking.
  • Common Uses: Asking for a summary of employer requirements across five different job market reports or identifying where two different faculty proposals align.
Studio

The Studio panel (located within the Notebook Guide) is the creative engine where your research is synthesized into professional-grade artifacts. It moves beyond simple Q&A, allowing you to transform static data into dynamic formats suitable for diverse stakeholders.

  • Audio Overview: One of the most unique features, this generates a realistic, podcast-style conversation between two AI hosts who “discuss” your sources. It’s an excellent way for administrators to digest complex workforce trends during a commute or break.
  • Video Overview: This takes synthesis a step further by generating a high-fidelity video presentation with natively generated audio, providing a visual and auditory summary of the key findings within your documents.
  • Mind Map: This tool visually maps the connections between different concepts, sources, and data points. It is particularly useful for “Custom Projects” where you need to visualize how regional labor shifts intersect with specific academic departments.
  • Reports: The Studio can instantly draft structured documents, such as Executive Summaries, Briefing Notes, or FAQs. These are grounded strictly in your sources, making them perfect for “Opportunity Analysis” first drafts.
  • Infographic: For a more visual approach, this component helps distill dense data into scannable, high-impact visual summaries that highlight the most critical “numbers to know” from your Lightcast reports.
  • Slide Deck: This feature outlines and drafts the structure for a presentation. It can organize your findings into a logical narrative flow, ready to be exported or used as the foundation for a faculty or board presentation.

 UNC Charlotte faculty and staff have access to NotebookLM. Try NotebookLM or learn more about NotebookLM here.