Labor Market Analysis

Practice of surveying the identified market at UC Davis and UC Davis Health.

The Compensation Unit conducts and participates in a number of compensation surveys to obtain data and metrics for occupations found at UC Davis and UC Davis Health. The surveys range from local to national markets and include specific jobs and major occupational groupings. Surveys include well-defined (benchmark) jobs in the market that are matched to similar jobs at UC Davis and UC Davis Health.

In general, labor market analysis is the process of:

  1. Identifying the appropriate labor market for various types of positions.
  2. Surveying the market to determine the salaries that are being paid for like positions.
  3. Identifying market trends such as: ancillary pay, and merit and pay practices.
  4. Establishing, adjusting, and/or recommending salary changes and/or structures for staff positions.
  5. Consulting with management on their workforce needs.

At UC Davis and UC Davis Health, labor market analysis is a five-part process to:

  1. Identify the area within which employers are competing for labor.
  2. Conduct or participate in market surveys within the labor market to determine the salaries being paid for specific positions.
  3. Work with management to validate the market areas, market competitors, and job matches.
  4. Identify market trends such as, ancillary pay, merit and pay practices.
  5. Establish, adjust, and/or recommend salary structures that will allow the university to effectively compete for staff within specific classification levels or grades.

Labor Market


To establish and adjust salary ranges, UC Davis and UC Davis Health consider a number of factors including the results of market survey analysis, availability of funds, recruitment and retention indicators, and internal equity/alignment issues. These factors are of equal importance to managers making individual pay adjustments. When analyzing salary survey information, the Compensation unit at UC Davis Health makes an effort to use data reported for institutions that are similar to UC Davis Health in terms of size (number of beds, number of staff, etc.), business status (teaching hospital, non-profit, etc.), and financial statistics (net revenue, operating expenses, etc.)

The labor market is defined as the area within which employers compete for labor. The market is composed of those businesses and organizations from UC Davis and UC Davis Health recruitment and includes the self-employed and unemployed with relevant skill mixes.

The university seeks qualified candidates from within (the internal market) and also competes in local, statewide, regional and national geographical labor markets. Appropriate markets are defined for occupational groupings of jobs or individual jobs based on a number of criteria including:

  • The comparability of competing institutions is defined by the type of industry/institution, comparability of services, size (as reflected by FTE or financial profile), and business status (government, for-profit, not-for-profit).
  • The availability of qualified, diverse applicant pools is determined by the size and composition of applicant pools, applicability of transferable skills, and the available workforce.