Supporting the Development of an Application Programming Interface (API) and Showcasing Its Use
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s (USCCF’s) Jobs and Employment Data Exchange (JEDx) is a public-private, standards-based initiative to promote the consistent sharing and use of data on jobs and employment. QIP contributed to the development of the JEDx initiative, from initial vision-setting to architecture and infrastructure development, and is now supporting the technical implementation pilots. Part of this work involves collaborating with different organizations that are committed to reducing reporting burdens through the use of data standards and technology.
Recently, QIP’s JEDx team, including our Bardic Systems and A4L partners, worked alongside the HR Open Standards Consortium to develop the JEDx Open API Specifications (published by HR Open Standards Consortium, Inc.) An API, or application programming interface, is a “set of protocols that enable different software components to communicate and transfer data.” APIs are useful for modernizing data exchanges and they offer both technical and business advantages; for example, by facilitating back-and-forth processes and change requests, as well as enabling timely data for decision-making. Moreover, report consolidation via APIs can help to reduce reporting burdens on data producers.
Instead of sending separate flat records for each collection in each state, JEDx aims to use the new API to enable employers and others to send standardized data objects that can be reused for multiple collections, including company, worker, and payroll objects. In January 2025, the JEDx team hosted a live demonstration of the API using simulated data that had been standardized according to JEDx specifications. The pilot test showed how a data producer, such as an employer, can send data to a data consumer, such as a state, via the JEDx API. The consumer can easily return data if requested. The demonstration also showed how JEDx supports autocoding of standard occupational classification (SOC) codes both prior to and after data collection, and how users can add privacy obligation metadata to data objects, ensuring that data senders and data users have immediate access to policies on the appropriate uses of the data. QIP looks forward to continuing to support the use of the JEDx API in the next phase of the JEDx project.
Watch this video developed by QIP to see these benefits and how data flow using the API.
