State officials outline data-platform rollout and recommend multistate options for workforce data

State officials briefed the House Commerce & Economic Development Committee on Jan. 8 on progress toward a statewide workforce data platform and recommended low-cost options to accelerate usable workforce insight while the state evaluates a longer-term data trust.

Subaina Haskell, executive director of the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development, said the legislative study called for by Act 146 (2024) considered multiple models. Haskell cautioned that a standalone data trust "will take a little bit longer" and require significant funding, governance agreements and privacy protections, while alternatives could yield useful results sooner.

What the state has done: Josiah Raish, chief data and AI officer for Vermont, described a December rollout of foundational infrastructure for a next-generation data platform that combines a data lake for rapid ingestion and a data warehouse for more complex cross-system analysis — together forming a "data lake house." Raish said the state is piloting governance with the Agency of Human Services and the Green Mountain Care Board and building a data catalog to document available sources.

Why it matters: A unified approach would let policymakers and agencies combine datasets—housing permitting, labor-market information and education outcomes—to understand where projects stall and how investments affect workforce outcomes. Raish noted some datasets require quality caveats and that standard demographic fields must be balanced against risks that granular questions can reduce program participation.

Multistate option recommended: Drake Turner, deputy director of the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development, recommended joining existing multistate collaboratives. He highlighted the Census-run PSEO Coalition (Postsecondary Employment/Opportunity), which already includes roughly 35 states and provides earnings and employment data by degree, major and institution. "There are 35 states participating in that coalition," Turner said, and Vermont higher-education institutions would need to opt in and format data but could avoid the upfront cost of building a fully separate repository.

Questions from members centered on costs and retrospective data. Officials said participation typically carries no membership fee for institutions but requires an initial data-formatting effort; some data (for example, Department of Labor wage records) can be backdated more easily than other institutional records. The presenters offered to continue outreach to higher-education partners and to return with updates on pilot progress.

Next steps: Committee members asked presenters to keep the committee informed as pilot governance and ADS onboarding advance. Officials urged the committee to define policy goals (what outcomes to measure) before committing to the scope and technical design of a repository.