In about two weeks, Wanted Technologies will beta-launch a new service for employers to estimate how many potential job candidates there are in a given job, in a given area. It’s hoping recruiters will find the tool valuable when talking to hiring managers, particularly in instances when recruiters need to explain why a given search is so difficult.
First, let me explain the type of data Wanted Technologies now offers. It splices and dices employment data a few different ways, and offers it to third-party recruiters looking to see which corporate recruiting departments are hiring, as well as to sales departments for them to get leads. An example is captured in the graphic on the right, showing sales jobs in Pittsburgh, grouped by employer, pulled from job boards.
Now what Wanted Technologies is planning on doing is taking its historical data, and packaging it so that it can be used as a sourcing tool.
As the (click-to-enlarge) graphic below shows, let’s say you wanted to see how many accounting/finance managers there are in Boston, in the finance/insurance industry, and you wanted to use the keyword “risk” to narrow down their experience.
Wanted Technologies will use U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data to show:
- There are about 2.4 million people working in Boston;
- About 102,000 of those are in finance/accounting;
- 15,920 of those are managers;
- About 25%, or 3,835, of those are in the finance/insurance industry.
That’s the easy part. That’s the government data, getting us down to 3,835 finance/accounting managers in Boston financial industry companies.
Here’s where the Wanted Technologies estimate comes in. Based on the historical data of Wanted Technologies’ last five years of job postings, it finds that 46% of the listings in that city, field, industry, and function, involve “risk.” It extrapolates — assuming that 46% of the 3,835 involve “risk.” With that, it estimates that about 1,775 people are available for you to choose from in Boston — 46% of 3,835.
Murray says this new tool is meant to give general supply-demand information: you can look at roughly how many people are in a given job, then look at how many employers are looking for the same thing you’re looking for, thus getting an idea how hard a search is going to be. Later, for the next version of this product, Murray says a red-yellow-green sign will be used to show how difficult a search is going to be.
Wanted’s current clients, like Robert Half and Kelly Services, will get the new product for free as an add-on to what they’re getting now. They pay $100 per seat per month. Murray hopes to sell new seats to the recruiters at companies like Robert Half and Kelly — as opposed to who’s using Wanted Technologies data now, which in many cases is business development people. Murray also helps to sell to corporate recruiting departments; particularly, as mentioned earlier, as a way for recruiters to “raise their credibility” and better explain how hard or easy it’s going to be to fill a job.
Some of the many companies in similar businesses include EmployOn, My Perfect Gig, and LinkedIn. Murray envisions recruiters using his new tool in combination with LinkedIn; Wanted Technologies first to see the numbers of people potentially available, LinkedIn to drill down. “If you find it’s going to be too hard to fill the job in Boston, then you may want to go to Springfield, Hartford, or somewhere else,” he says.