Burning Glass, Emsi to Merge Into Single Labor Data Firm

Burning Glass Labor Market

Burning Glass Technologies said it will merge with Emsi, a labor market data firm, with the backing of its primary investor KKR. Terms were not disclosed.

The combined company, to be called Emsi Burning Glass, will be led by Burning Glass CEO Matt Sigelman. Andrew Crapuchettes, Emsi’s former CEO, will become strategic advisor to the board of directors. The company will maintain facilities at Emsi’s recently built headquarters in Moscow, Idaho, and Burning Glass’s headquarters in Boston.

.@Burning_Glass Technologies will merge with Emsi, to combine two leading, complementary sources of labor market data. #HR #HRTech Click To Tweet

The combination joins two leading, complementary sources of labor market data for use by businesses, government agencies and educational institutions. Burning Glass maintains a real-time, proprietary database of job openings and career histories, and collects data from more than 40,000 sources from more than 30 countries. Emsi combines government and real-time labor market data with customer support and labor analytics product development.

‘Complementary Capabilities’

“Our complementary capabilities in data analytics and product development will give us the scale and resources to deliver even greater value to our customers through new, enhanced products,” said Sigelman.  

On his web site, industry analyst Josh Bersin noted that a number of companies have tried to make a go of building and selling skills databases, but “most have given up.” Although merging Burning Glass and Emsi will be tricky—they have different toolsets and taxonomies, Bersin pointed out—the new firm may well become a force in the space.

KKR is making its investment in the combined company from its Global Impact Fund, which invests in companies that provide commercial solutions to further one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By providing the data to drive life-long learning and market-aligned training, the investment company said, Burning Glass and Emsi will deliver measurable progress in achieving two of those: quality education and decent work and economic growth.

Image: Burning Glass

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