1: Introduction and Module Learning Objectives

Many people view the labour market as something distant and opaque, understandable only to economists or labour market analysts. This can make the labour market feel disconnected from our day-to-day lives and from our work as Career Development Professionals (CDPs). Yet to offer credible support, we need to recognize the labour market as something that belongs to all of us—real, relevant, and understandable at a fundamental level for both practitioners and clients. By exploring the basics of how the labour market functions, its core components, and the forces that shape it, we begin to demystify it. This module introduces that foundational structure, creating a solid starting point for meaningfully integrating labour market information (LMI) into our work with clients.