In December 2009, the Department of Labor awarded approximately $50 million in State LMI Improvement grants (LMI grants) to 24 individual state workforce agencies (SWAs) and 6 consortia of SWAs. Grantees used these LMI grants, which ranged from approximately $750,000 to $4 million, to collect, analyze, and disseminate LMI, and enhance the labor-exchange function in states. Each SWA or consortium was required to form multiple partnerships to help facilitate efforts to improve LMI in the state. Grantees' activities included efforts to understand green jobs, connect workers to jobs, and enhance LMI labor exchange infrastructure for jobs and careers in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries. Grantees' activities were expected to benefit job seekers, businesses, educational institutions, and the overall economy in their states or regions.

In September 2010, ETA contracted with Mathematica Policy Research (Mathematica) to evaluate the extent to which the State LMI Improvement grant program was achieving its stated purposes. Mathematica was asked to broadly document the activities of all 30 grantees, provide a detailed description of the activities and partnerships of a subset of grantees, and identify grantees' challenges and promising practices. This study includes a summary report of the grantee activities, a final report and three LMI practitioner briefs.

The Grantee Summary Report entitled Investing in Labor Market Information (LMI): A Summary of State LMI Improvement Grants, is based on a review of grantees' statements of work, quarterly progress reports, and information gathered from in-depth site visits with the following nine grantees: Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Labor and Industry, Indiana Department of Workforce Development, Iowa Workforce Development, Maryland Department of Labor Licensing and Regulation, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, State of Oregon Employment Department, and Vermont Department of Labor. This report summarizes information about these grantees' goals, definitions of green jobs, partners and stakeholders, activities, products, and dissemination strategies for the 30 LMI grantees.