Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin

Labor market survey (LMS) as used in rehabilitation and dis-ability services has been defined as “a survey methods strategy to collect qualitative and/or quantitative data for a small popu-lation census or sample about an identified labor market in order to draw inferences to the client/evaluee (N = 1) ” (Bar-ros-Bailey, 2011, in press). There are generally three phases in the rehabilitation counseling process where LMS is used— vocational exploration, plan development, and job placement. In vocational exploration and plan development, inferences from LMSs might be distal from the client and involve exam-ining a variety of potential occupations and their relevant labor market factors important to establishing a vocational goal and developing a rehabilitation plan and justification. In this instance, the inference is how the occupation(s) or job classification meet(s) an assessment of the needs, skills, and/ or interests of the individual. The intended outcome at these phases is typically a plan. For the job placement phase, the LMS information may be used more for establishing relation-ships with employers or identifying job opportunities within the labor market. For this phase, the immediate inference is very proximal to the client; that is, the information is used in the direct match between the abilities of a single individual and the work activities, requirements, and demands of a single or small pool of available positions. The intended outcome at this phase is placement and integration of an individual with a disability into the world of work. It has been established by Neulicht, Gann, Berg, and Taylor (2007) and confirmed by Barros-Bailey (2011, in press) that there exists little in the lit-erature on the use and practice of LMS in rehabilitation and disability services; thus, LMS may arguably depict a profes-sional area of rehabilitation counseling that is mainly carried forth by oral tradition in education, training, and practice