Indiana's Hoosiers by the Numbers

Indiana's Merrill Baumgardner Innovation in Information Technology Award Nomination: Hoosiers by the Numbers

Contact Information of Individual Submitting Nomination

Nominator: Kayli Schroeder

Agency Name: Indiana Department of Workforce Development

Indiana's Hoosiers by the Numbers

Hoosiers by the Numbers originated in 2005, but new components of the site are spec'd out and deployed annually – such as in 2018 the release of the new Regional Analyst portal, which is a dynamic page that provides current and real-time data plus direct contact with regional LMI analysts. Additionally, Hoosiers by the Numbers is a dynamic tool for legislators to pull up their districts' labor market information in a portable, easily communicated fashion. Hoosiers by the Numbers is maintained by the Research and Analysis division of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development in partnership with the Indiana University Business Research Center and provides accessible data and tools to support the department's twin goals of:

Aggressively empowering Indiana workers to become a highly-skilled, competitive workforce
Providing premier customer service to all internal and external customers Improved Information = Improved Decision Making

Hoosiers by the Numbers has long been ahead of the curve in the use of information technology to provide access to a broad and deep user community. Creating a database-driven CMS and providing dynamic data delivery for Hoosiers by the Numbers were two key developments for DWD's ability to provide timely workforce and economic data to Hoosiers. Ensuring responsiveness across a broad array of devices was adopted early on, and the implementation of visualizations as a key component of the site has also allowed the workforce agency to broaden its community of users.

Statement of results, accomplishments, impacts and any other appropriate information that demonstrates why the nominee's efforts were an exceptional contribution.

2005-2007: Developed a state-of-the-art CMS to allow for division staff to add and modify content as needed. This solution was written specifically for LMI; it was not a "canned" solution.
2008: Custom Google analytics deployed on site, which allows for a deep and broad set of specialized search algorithms tuned by Google AI.
2010: Business Lookup Tool was one of the first to take advantage of the Google map API combined with ESRI GIS/Server technology to help job seekers, employers, trade associations and more.
2011: Cost of living calculator plug-in from C2ER. The first State LMI shop to use this plug-in.
2012: Transition Time and Transition Time for Veterans.
2014: Poverty Rate Lookup.
2015: RFI Data Assistant was developed to assist economic development Request for Information proposals, bringing frequently requested data set used for business attraction analysis into one place.
2016 Workforce Economy Dashboard – monthly view for key stats used by businesses, government and others who need to monitor the health of the economy.
2017: Legislative profiles with near real-time job demand statistics for their constituencies.
2018 Regional Analyst portal: Localized data with direct contact information for the LMI analyst.

Other significant contributions

Hoosiers by the Numbers (HBTN) is the premier source for trusted, accurate and up-to-date labor market data, tools and products for the State of Indiana. Hoosiers by the Numbers constantly evolves to meet user needs by developing innovative products and tools that provide actionable data for informed decision-making surrounding the Indiana labor market. In 2018, Hoosiers by the Numbers had 56,974 unique users, 86,036 sessions and 382,927 page views. In that same year, the website won the "Award of Excellence for Websites" from the Association for University Business and Economic Research (AUBER).