Expansion of the North Carolina Unemployment Insurance Individual Wage Report to Include Occupational Detail: A Study of a Consolidated Approach to Occupational Data Collection.

A study examined the feasibility of adding employer-generated job titles to the North Carolina Unemployment Insurance Individual Wage Record as a means to providing a more comprehensive source of occupational data than has been possible with currently operating federal and state systems. During the study, researchers conducted structured interviews with representatives of 10 private industry firms located in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Winston-Salem and had unstructured discussions with representatives of the North Carolina Employment Security Division and Department of Community Colleges. In addition, technical documents and applicable legislation were consulted. Based on these data sources, it is clear that the state's unemployment insurance system is already being used for labor market information purposes. The expansion of the current form to include employer-generated job titles would further enhance the unemployment insurance database and thus produce a comprehensive labor market information system that would substantially improve the state's capability to plan and administer the use of public funds for a wide range of purposes. Therefore, it is recommended that enabling legislation be passed to authorize and fund the supporting additional research and development for a consolidated employer reporting requirement and an accompanying state processing and delivery system for employment data and that unemployment reporting legislation be amended to include a mandate for reporting wage items. (MN)