Labour market information and social justice: a critical examination

Labour Market Information forms a central place in career practice and how individuals enact their careers. This paper makes use of Alvesson and Sandberg’s (Constructing research questions: doing interesting research.Sage, Thousand Oaks, 2013) methodology of focussing research on theoretical assumptions to construct a critical literature review on the relationship between Labour Market Information and career guidance. This paper presents six theoretical conceptions from the career literature: Contact, Rationalism, Nomad, Adaptability, Constructivist and Social Justice. We will argue for the need to move towards more constructivist understandings of Labour Market Information as well understandings linked to more critical understandings of the labour market.