Guidance

About the Employment Data Lab

Updated 5 December 2023

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employment-data-lab-information-and-guidance/about-the-employment-data-lab

What is the Employment Data Lab?

The Employment Data Lab is a service provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The service is aimed at organisations who work with people to help them into employment. The purpose is to provide these organisations with information to help them understand the impact of their programmes, and to share these findings publicly so that everyone can learn about what works in helping people into employment.

How does it work?

The Employment Data Lab uses employment and benefits data to evaluate the outcomes of people who have participated in an employment support programme. Where possible these outcomes are compared to those of a comparison group of similar people who did not take part to estimate the impact of the programme. The results are then compiled into a report and shared with the User Organisation and published on GOV.UK.

The Employment Data Lab is free and easy to use, with the Employment Data Lab team carrying out analysis on behalf of the User Organisations.

The Methodology Report provides a detailed description of the approach used to produce the Employment Data Lab evaluations. The document covers the end-to-end process with a focus on the data sources and the matching methods used to estimate the impact of employment support programmes.

A summary of the process is:

  1. The User Organisation submits information about the participants of an employment programme. This will include information such as names, addresses and dates of birth.

  2. This information is then linked to government administrative data and names and addresses are deleted. Where possible, the Data Lab team then creates a comparison group of people with similar characteristics but who did not take part in the programme.

  3. The participant and comparison groups are analysed, and their outcomes compared to estimate the impact of the programme.

  4. The results are compiled into a report and shared with the User Organisation. The User Organisation will have a chance to comment on the results in the report before it is published online.

Who is it for?

This is a service for organisations that help people into, or to progress in work. Any organisation, whether a charity, or in the private or public sectors, who has worked with people to help them into work can contact the Employment Data Lab.

Why is DWP doing this?

DWP has a core objective of maximising employment, and in-work progression. Identifying what types of programmes are the most effective is beneficial to DWP, participating organisations, and the wider public.

It is often difficult for individual organisations to assess the impact of their own programmes due to a lack of information or access to a suitable comparison group. Situated in DWP with access to wide-ranging administrative data, the Employment Data Lab is well placed to address these issues.

What does the Employment Data Lab produce?

The Employment Data Lab team will use administrative data and the data provided by User Organisations to estimate the impact of their programme. The results will be collated into a report and published online. This will help User Organisations and others to better understand the impacts of their programmes. Only aggregate, non-identifiable data will used in these reports.

A detailed explanation of the methodology used can be found in the methodology document.

Sometimes it is not possible to create a well-matched comparison group and estimate of the impact of a programme. In such cases the Data Lab team will endeavour to provide summary information about the outcomes of the programme participants.

The reports

The reports will focus on a small number of primary outcome measures that will be agreed with the User Organisation before the analysis is conducted. The range of outcome measures that can be reported on include:

  • the percentage of participants in employment at 6, 12, 18 or 24 months after starting the programme

  • the average number of weeks spent in employment at 6, 12, 18 or 24 months after starting the programme

  • the percentage of participants not in education, employment, or training (NEET) at 6, 12, 18 or 24 months after starting the programme

  • in addition to employment status, other labour market outcomes are available such as time spent looking for work or inactive. It is also possible to provide information on the transitions between these categories

In addition, the reports will include:

  • illustrated graphs and tables
  • a response from the User Organisation (optional)
  • descriptive statistics of the programme participants
  • success rates for matching the programme participants to the DWPs administrative datasets
  • information about how well matched the participant and comparison groups are

How to use the Employment data lab service

For information on how an organisation can access the Employment Data Lab service, please see the Employment Data Lab: user guide document.

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