Employment Imports

Quarterly Earnings Imports

The Quarterly Earnings and/or Quarterly Earnings (Hidden) imports allow the state director or other LACES user at the state SEA level to import employment outcomes at the Imports area. The Quarterly Earnings (Hidden) import is only available if your state has opted in to the Private Employment Data Management functionality and the correct user role  has been assigned. The employment imports allow multiple student records to be updated with one import instead of updating the records manually. The information is imported from a .csv file prepared by the user using data from data matched employment records provided by the state Department of Labor (DOL), Employment Commission or other wage data source.  Work history records that have been updated via the import are considered to be data matched.

Important things to keep in mind:

• Follow up is done for the 2nd and 4th quarters after the student's PoP exit date.  A student may have multiple exit dates in a FY if the student was in one or more PoPs.  Remember that exit date does NOT populate until 90 days after the student's last hours date in a PoP.

• Quarterly earnings data is collected during the 2nd quarter follow-up.  This data is used to report median earnings on Table 5.  Per the NRS, second quarter employment records with blank or $0 earnings will prevent the student from counting on Table 5 as ACHIEVING the outcome. 

• In order to populate Table 5, students must have a work history record in the correct follow-up quarter based on the student PoP exit date.

• The import cannot be undone once the import process is complete.

Getting Started

Before you prepare your import file, it is important to understand how students show that they are employed, not employed, or are available for employment follow-up in their PoP summary record.

• 1. The PoP summary employment columns in the student record will be null (blank) if no follow-up - either manual or data matched - has taken place for an employment outcome.

  2. To be eligible for follow-up, the PoP must have an exit date.

  If employment follow-up has already been done either manually or by data match:

• "Yes" will display in the employment outcome measure columns in the PoP summary if an employed work history record was entered or data matched with the start date in the appropriate follow-up quarter.  

• "No" will display in the employment outcome measure columns in the PoP Summary record if an unemployed history record was manually entered with the start date in the appropriate follow-up quarter. 

• Employment columns on the PoP Summary record are blank if there is no exit date in the PoP, the student is not eligible for follow-up, or has not yet been followed up for reporting in the appropriate reporting year. 

Use the LACES All PoPs Summary area to Create a Source File

A file with the students who are eligible for employment follow-up can be exported from LACES at the SEA as a .csv file. This file can then be prepared for importing, or sending to a wage data source to be data matched prior to importing.  Remember that SEA users in clients who have opted into Private Employment Data but don't have the proper role will NOT see employment data or the Employed outcome columns at the All PoPs Summary area. 

    1.  Sign into the SEA and click the down arrow on the Additional area.

    2.  Select All PoPs Summary.

    3.  Remove the Current Fiscal Year filter.

    4. Create a new view with the following fields:

Filter the list

    1.  To find students with a SSN, click the filter icon on the SSN grid filter, and select 'Has any value.'  This will return all students who have a SSN entered in their student record.

    2. To find students who exited in the relevant date range: 

            a.  In the Exit Date column grid filter, enter '1/1/20**.  The year** will be appropriate for the reporting year.  Reference the chart 'Employment Measure Follow Up' for Table 5.

• •   Exit date for 2nd quarter follow-up is the fiscal year PRIOR to the reporting year

  •   Exit date for 4th quarter follow-up is the calendar year PRIOR to the reporting year

            b.  Click the filter icon and choose Greater than or equal.

            c.  In the Exit Data column grid filter, enter 6/30/20**.

            d. Click the filter icon and choose Less than or equal.

            e.  In the resulting popup window, click 'Add.'

            f. A search tile will be added with the following parameters:  (Example exit date search is for the 2023-2024 reporting year)

Follow up may have been done manually, so some students who display on the grid may have 'Yes' or No' in the 'Employed 2nd Qtr (Outcome Measure)' or 'Employed 4th Qtr (Outcome Measure)' columns already.   If you want to remove those students from the list, you can add an additional search:

            a. Click Add Search.

            b. Select Student All PoPs.Employed 2nd Qtr (Outcome Measure).

            c. Leave the 'Is equal to' operator, and leave the checkbox unchecked.  This will return students who have 'No' in the 'Employed 2nd Qtr (Outcome Measure)' column.

            d. Click the Split button on the search row.

            e. Student All PoPs.Employed 2nd Qtr (Outcome Measure) will already be selected.  Select the operator 'Has no value.'  This will return students who do not have 'Yes' or 'No' in the column, but whose 'Employed 2nd Qtr (Outcome Measure)' column is null, or blank.

            f. Click the 'Add Criteria' button.

            g. Select Student All PoPs.Employed 4th Qtr (Outcome Measure).

            h. Leave the 'Is equal to' operator, and leave the checkbox unchecked.  This will return students who have 'No' in the 'Employed 4th Qtr (Outcome Measure)' column.

            i. Click the Split button.

            j. Student All PoPs.Employed 4th Qtr (Outcome Measure) will already be selected.  Select the operator 'Has no value.'  This will return students who do not have 'Yes' or 'No' in the column, but whose 'Employed 4th Qtr (Outcome Measure)' column is null, or blank.

            k.  Change the operators on each search row to [or].

              l. Click Apply. You can save the search if you wish. 

            m. With all 3 search tiles applied, the returned student list will contain only students who:

• • • •  Have a SSN entered in the student record, AND

      •  Have a PoP with the exit date in the appropriate date range, AND

      •  'Employed 2nd Qtr (Outcome Measure)' column contains either 'no' or is blank, OR

      •  Employed 4th Qtr (Outcome Measure)' column contains either 'no' or is blank.

Export the list

1. Click the Export icon on the toolbar to export the list to .csv.

2. These are the students to be data matched.

Depending on how your state verifies employment data match, this file may be sent to the Department of Labor or other verifying agency.  The file that is then returned must be prepared for importing into LACES.

Prepare the file

1. The import file accepts the the following fields.  Imports may be done by student ID or SSN:

• SSN or Student ID (One is required)

• Quarter (Required)

• Quarterly Earnings (Required)

• Employer

• FEIN

Only include students on the import file who were employed and had earnings. 

Students with blank or 0 earnings in the 2nd quarter do not count on Table 5 as achieving the employment outcome measure. 

Example file:

• • SSN must not contain hyphens. Leading 0s will not display.

  • Quarter - this is the calendar quarter rather than the FY quarter.  See below for more explanation on the employment quarters.

  • Quarterly Earnings - this field must have a value. 

NRS and Imported Employment Quarters 

NRS quarters are by fiscal year.  For example, at the All PoP Summary area, a student may display an exit date of 3/1/2019.  This exit date is in NRS quarter 3.  The 2nd quarter follow up for this exit date will take place between 7/1/2019 and 9/30/2019. This is calendar quarter 20193.  The import file should include the calendar quarters, not the FY quarters.

Calendar Import quarters                                  NRS quarters

 Jan – Mar                    Quarter 1                                           Quarter 3

April – June                  Quarter 2                                           Quarter 4

July – Sep                    Quarter 3                                           Quarter 1

Oct – Dec                     Quarter 4                                           Quarter 2

Import the File

• 1. Sign into the SEA and click the down arrow on the Additional area.

  2. Select Imports 

  3. Click the Import Data button

  4. Select 'Quarterly Earnings' or 'Quarterly Earnings (Hidden)' depending on  whether or not your state has opted into the Private Employment Data Management functionality and the correct user role  has been assigned.

  5.  Select the file to upload. The file will not import unless it is a .csv file.

  6. Click the Import button. 

  7. The progress of the import can be monitored at the Imports area.

The import cannot be undone once the import process is complete, so it is important to make sure your import file has the correct data.   

If you mistakenly use the 'Quarterly Earnings' import instead of the 'Quarterly Earnings (Hidden)' import, if you re-import the exact same file selecting the correct import functionality, the records that were imported will be updated from visible to hidden in LACES.  The same is true if you accidentally import records as hidden that were meant to be visible.

IMPORTANT NOTES: 

• Always verify the data on the import file prior to importing.

• Only .csv files may be imported.

• Until you are familiar with the import process, importing files with fewer records are easier to manage, especially if there are records with errors.

• You must have the required columns on the import file, including the correct spelling and capitalization (SSN or Student ID, Quarter, Quarterly Earnings).  Other columns are allowed, such as Last Name and First Name, but the file must have the required columns.

• An identical import record will not be imported again. For example, if the information on the import file has already been imported, and a new import file contains the same information for the student, the information will not be imported again.