Labour Marketing-3

A PROJECT REPORT ON
“RECRUITING AND LABOUR MARKETS”.
SUBMITTEDINPARTIALFULFILLMENTOFTHEREQUIREMENTSFO
RTHE AWARDOFTHE DEGREE OF
BACHLOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDY (BMS)
UNIVERSITYOFMUMBAI
SUBMITTEDBY
(SUHAS MARUTI LAWAND)
BMS, SEMESTERVI
(ROLLNO. 24160)
ACADEMICYEAR2022-2023
UNDERTHEGUIDENCEOF
ASST.PROF. NAYANA PANIGRAHI
KONARK IDEAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & COMMERCE KALYAN

(E) DIST: THANE421306
1
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that (SUHAS MARUTI LAWAND) has worked and duly completed
his project work for the degree of Bachelor of Management Studies under the Faculty of
Commerce in the subject of Finance and his project is entitled “ RECRUITING AND
LABOUR MARKETS”. under my supervision.
I further certify that the entire work has been done by the learner under my guidance and that no
part of it has been submitted previously for any Degree of any University.
It is his own work and facts reported by his personal findings and in vestigations.
Project Guide NAYANA PANIGRAHI
Principal
External Examiner
2
DECLARATION
I the undersigned SUHAS MARUTI LAWAND here by, declare

that the work embodied in this project work title
“RECRUITING AND LABOUR MARKETS ””forms my own
contribution to there search work carried out under the guidance of
ASST.PROF. NAYANA PANIGRAHI is a result of any bothers
university for any other degree to this or any other university.
Wherever reference has been made top previous works of others it

has been clearly indicated assuchandincludedin the bibliography.
I, here by further declare that all information of this document has been
obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical
conduct.
PLACE:
DATE
Student Signature
SUHAS MARUTI LAWAND
3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It gives me great pleasure to submit this project to the University of Mumbai as a part of
curriculum of my BMS course. I take this opportunity with great pleasure to present before you
this project on (SUHAS MARUTI LAWAND) which is a result of co-operation, hard

work and good wishes of many people.
No words can adequately express my sincere thanks to all those who have helped me in making
this project a success.
Also, Ian knowledge my deep sense of gratitude towards my guide ASST.PROF.

NAYANA PANIGRAHI
I am grateful SHIRIN GONSALVEZ Principal of College& ASST.PROF. NAYANA

PANIGRAHI
My debt to those who have helped me in one way or the other is heavy indeed. I would like to appreciate
contribution of my family and friends who have extended their complete support in completion of this project.
Last but not the least; I am thank full to the almighty for giving me strength, courage and
patience to complete this project.
Suhas Maruti lawand
4
INDEX Page no
CHAPTER I 1 - 38
* Introduction.
1.1 Innovating Recruiting in tight loboun markets
1.2 labor mourkets.
1.3 labour market work
1.4 labour market in india.
1.5 Recruiting
1.6 Strategic recruiting and HR planning
1.7 Integrating Recruiting Components
1.8 labour market and recruiting
1.9 Industry and occupational labour market
1.10 Strategic Recruiting Decisions
1.11 Regular versus flexible staffing
1.12 Internet Recruiting.
1.13 To Recruiting and internet social networking
1.14 Recruiting using special technology Means
1.15 legal issues in internet Recruiting
1.16 Advantage Of internet Recruiting
5
1.17 Disadvantage of internet Recruiting
CHAPTER II 39 - 52
* Review of literature.
2.1 The labour market
2.2 General Recruiting process.
2.3 labour Market data
2.4 Network-based recruitment process
2.5 talent platform in corporate labour market

data
2.6 benefits of labour marèt data.
2.7 labour data + network-based recruiting

Perfect hiring match.
CHAPTER III 53 - 58
* Research methodology
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The interpretation of requirement
CHAPTER IV 59 - 82
* Data interpretation
4.1 Data analysis empowens individuals
6
4.2 labour market data analysis.
4.3 Data analysis the recruiter
4.4 Important data analysis and interpreation
4.5 Recruitment metrics
4.6 Important Recruitment
4.5 Role of data analytics in Recruitment
4.6 Important recruitment metrics.
4.7 Implementing data analytics.
4.8 labour market research.
4.9 Sources of online labour market data
CHAPTER V 83 - 87
* Finding of the study and suggestion.
5.1 Abstract
5.2 Introduction
5.3 labour market conditions
5.4 Data and method
5.5 Preliminary analysis and the econometric

model
5.6 estimation results.
7
5.7 Acknowledgements.
CHAPTER VI 88 -89
* Conclusion
CHAPTER VII 90
* Biblography
7.1 website
CHAPTER VIII
*Appendix
8.1 Perfomance of job Active
8.2 Job placement and outcomes by duration of

unemployment
8.3 Placement and outcomes by Industry
8.4 Placement by Employer
8.5 Time to Exit
8.6 Reference
8
CHAPTER I
INTRDUCTION
Innovative Recruiting in Tight Labor Markets

When the unemployment rate is high, recruiting people to work is easy—
simply let it be known that jobs are available. But when the unemploy-
ment rate is very low and few people are looking for jobs, recruiting
becomes much more challenging. In the past few years for many employ-
ers, challenging recruiting has become the rule rather than the exception.
An examination of some of the recruiting techniques used by employers
shows both creativity and desperation facing tight labor markets.
Merit Electric in Largo, Florida, took its pitch for electricians to the
junior high schools. The owner says, “We are not expecting a decision
from an eighth grader, but we want to ex- pose them to the profession.”
Additionally, in many areas other employers have formed “partnerships”
with high schools that include intern- ships, mentoring, and jobs for those
graduates who do not wish to go onto college.
In Dubuque, Iowa, when employment hit a low of 3.9%, the city
launched a come-home campaign during the holidays, hoping parents
would convince their adult children visiting from out of state to come
back and work in Iowa. Other labor-hungry Iowa communities have
added similar programs and have advertised at high school reunions and
in college alumni publications. Trying to attract labor rather than
businesses is unusual for a state, but it has become common in Iowa,
Nebraska, and a number of other states facing low unemployment levels.
Employers in other states also have turned to “risky” hires that they
would normally not consider. For example, Produce Packaging in
Cleveland has
9
hired parolees from Ohio prisons, many of whom had been convicted of
violent crimes. For this recruiting source, many of the 1.7 million pris-
oners in U.S. prisons are released to halfway houses or work-release pro-
grams from which they can be hired. Additionally, welfare recipients with
little or no job experience are hired, as well as former drug addicts. In
fact, one firm—Microboard Processing in Seymour, Connecticut—sets
aside 10% of its hires for “high risk” candidates. They do not all work
out, because a significant number of them fail to meet production or
attendance standards and are terminated. But with a variety of educational
and trainng programs provided by Microboard, others do succeed.
Employers trying to recruit employees in the especially difficult areas of
information technology and computer/software engineering go to great
lengths to “steal” employees from each other. One firm sent a secretary
to obtain a competitor’s in-house phone book, which could be used to
contact employees. In Dallas, National Semiconductor put a billboard
right outside the headquarters of its competitor, Texas Instruments. The
sign said, “Why did the engineer cross the road?... to get a better job.” It
included National’s toll-free phone number.
Other information technology (IT) firms have paid signing bonuses
tosophomore and junior computer science majors—and promised
$60,000 jobs with no college degree. To some 19-year-olds, such offers
have proved tempting—but like would-be sports stars, some individuals
ultimately have found that they needed to go back and get college degrees
for long-term career growth.In another type of creative recruiting, some
firms have opened employment centers in shopping malls, and others
have stationed remodeled motor homes—all set up for interviews, test-
ing, and hiring—in parking lots at the malls. These centers sport big
signs: “Want a job? Apply here!”Other innovative approaches include
advertising over the loud- speaker at San Francisco 49ers games, using a
10
plane towing an advertising banner over beach areas, setting up
recruiting tables at minor league baseball games, advertising on the back
of grocery receipts, advertising for “moonlighters” (those who want a
second job), and busing people to work so they do not have to
drive.These are only a few of the ways employers have pursued
employees when faced with tight labor markets. But like everything
connected to the business cycle, if and when the unemployment rates
increase, some employers will be able to return to the traditional approach
of advertising in the newspapers to attract candidates for most open jobs.
Staffing is the process of matching appropriate peoplewith

appropriate jobs. From the viewpoint of organizations,
staffing entails using HR planning information to
determine the correct numbers and kinds of candidates,
locating them, and then selecting those who are most
likely to be satisfactory employees. From the standpoint
of job applicants, the staffing process affects how they see
jobs and organizations, and the likelihood that they will
be matched with jobs that are rewarding for them. The
organizational perspective is the primary focal point in this
chapter and the next. Staffing consists of two parts:
recruiting and selection. This chapter examines recruiting,
and the next examines selection. Recruiting is the process
of generating a pool of qualified applicants for
organizational jobs. If the number of available
candidates only equals the number of people to be hired,
there is no real selection—the choice has already been made.
The organization must either leave some openings unfilled
or take all the candidates.
11
Many employers currently are facing shortages of workers
with the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities
(KSAs) in tight labor markets, as the chapter opener
indicates. However, because business cycles go up and
down, the demand for labor changes and the number of
people looking for work changes. Because the labor
market is the environment in which staffing takes place,
learning some basics about labor markets aids
understanding of recruiting.
Labor Markets
There actually is not one, but several labor markets that are the
external sources from which employers attract employees. These
markets occur because different conditions characterize different
geographical areas, industries, occupations, and professions at any
given time. For example, the demand for over-the- road truck drivers
is very strong at this writing (a tight labor market). Yet with
downsizing and mergers in the banking industry, there is a surplus
of middle- level banking managers (a loose market).There are many
ways to identify labor markets, including by geographical area,
type of skill, and educational level. Some labor market segments
might include managerial, clerical, professional and technical,
and blue collar. Classified differently, some markets are local,
others regional, others national; and there are international labor
markets as well. For instance, an interesting labor market seg- ment
opened up with the demise of the Soviet Union. A number of
excellent So- viet scientists became available due to the absence
of job opportunities in their own countries. Several research
organizations, including Sun Microsystems, have recruited them for
12
jobs. Many of these recruits have continued to live in their home
countries and are linked electronically to their employers in the
United States.Recruiting locally for a job market that is really
national likely will result in disappointing applicant rates. For
example, attempting to recruit a senior accounting faculty
member in a small town is not likely to be successful. Con-
versely, it may not be necessary to recruit nationally for workers
in unskilledpositions on the assembly line. The job qualifications
needed and the distribu- tion of the labor supply determine which
labor markets are relevant.
Changes in a labor market may force changes in recruiting efforts.
If a new major employer locates in a regional labor market, then
other employers may see a decline in their numbers of applicants.
For instance, when three riverboat casinos, employing a total of
3,000 workers, opened in Council Bluffs, Iowa, many employers in
the area noticed a dramatic decrease in the number of applicants
for job openings outside of the casino industry. Also, some
employers, particularly smaller manufacturing firms, had to raise
their wages to prevent turnover of existing workers. Similar
occurrences have followed the opening of large automobile
manufacturing plants in South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and
Alabama.
To understand the components of labor markets in which recruiting
takes place, three different concepts must be considered. Those three
groups are labor force population, applicant population, and
applicant pool.
The labor force population includes all individuals who are available
for selection if all possible recruitment strategies are used. This vast
array of possible applicants may be reached in very different ways.
13
Different recruiting methods— for example, newspaper ads versus
college recruiting—will reach different segments of the labor force
population.
The applicant population is a subset of the labor force
population that is available for selection using a particular
recruiting approach. For example, an organization might limit its
recruiting for management trainees to MBA graduates from major
universities. This recruiting method will result in a very different
group of applicants from those who would have applied had the
employer chosen to advertise openings for management trainees
on a local radio station.
At least four recruiting decisions affect the nature of the applicant
population:
1. Recruiting method: advertising medium chosen and considering
use of employment agencies.
2. Recruiting message: what is said about the job and how it is

said.
3. Applicant qualifications required: education level and amount of
experience necessary.
4. Administrative procedures: time of year recruiting is done, the
follow-ups with applicants, and use of previous applicant files.
The applicant pool consists of all persons who are actually

evaluated for selection. Many factors can affect the size of the
applicant pool. For example, the organization mentioned
previously is likely to interview only a small percentage of the
MBA graduates at major universities, because not all graduates will
want to be interviewed. The applicant pool at this step will depend
on the reputation of the organization and industry as a place to
work, the screening efforts of the organization, and the
14
information available to the applicant population. Assuming a
suitable candidate can be found, the final selection is made from
the applicant pool.
The supply and demand of workers in the labor force population
has a sub- stantial impact on the staffing strategies of
organizations. Internal labor markets also influence recruiting
because many employers choose to promote from within whenever
possible, but hire externally for entry-level jobs. A discussion of
these and other strategic decisions to be made in recruiting follows.
What is the Labour Market?

The labour market, also known as the job market, relates to the
supply and labour demand in which the supply is provided by the workers
and demand by the employers. It is a significant component of
any economy and is closely linked to the finance, commodities, and
services markets. At a macroeconomic level, both domestic and
international market dynamics affect supply and demand, as well as
variables, such as globalisation, population size, and level of
education.Different companies deal with workers on a microeconomic
level, recruiting them, dismissing them, and increasing or cutting pay and
hours.
How Does Labour Market Work?

The functioning of a labour market varies under the macroeconomic
theory and microeconomic theory.The wage growth lags productivity
growth according to macroeconomic theory. Hence, the demand would
surpass the labour supply. When there is downward pressure on wages,
the workers compete for a limited number of jobs and employers and find
the best of the talent getting picked.In comparison, if the demand is more
15
than the supply, there is upward pressure on wages, because workers have
more bargaining power and are more likely to be able to move to higher-
paid jobs. In contrast, employers have to fight for scarce labour.Some
factors can affect supply and demand in the labour market. An increase in
immigration into a country, for example, may increase labour supply and
potentially depresses wages. In particular, it is likely to happen if a newly
arrived worker is willing to accept lower pay. The ageing population will
consume labour supply and potentially drive up salaries.Microeconomic
theory analyses the supply of labour and demand at the individual firm
and worker level. Supply, or the hours that an employee wants to work,
initially decreases as wages increase.Few workers would willingly work
for nothing (theoretically, unpaid interns are working to gain experience
and improve their desirability for other employers) and more people are
willing to work for Rs.50 an hour than Rs.5 an hour.
Labour Market in India

Firstly, between 1951 and 2012, there was a significant shift in
the population from agriculture to manufacturing and services.
The recent data shows these changes to be continuing. As a
result of these shifts, productivity in agriculture has fallen
sharply. It is in contrast to overall productivity, while the
services have gone up dramatically. A second important feature
of the Indian labour market is the low rate of participation,
defined as the population within the age group of fifteen to
sixty-five years (the "working-age" population) who either
work or seek employment. In particular, the low female
participation rate (by international standards), which was
between 34 and 37 per cent for fifteen years up to 2005,
continued to decline and stabilise at a rate of 27 per cent.A third
16
salient feature of the Indian labour market is the superiority of
migrant workers and the unorganised sector's dominance in the
labour market, which includes companies employing fewer than
ten employees.A fourth characteristic of the Indian labour
market is the presence of rigid labour market laws that limit
employers' rights.The final characteristic of the Indian labour
market is the provision of government jobs to rural poor under
the scheme of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(NREGA).
RECRUITING
Recruiting is becoming more important as labor markets shift.
Although recruiting can be expensive, an offsetting concept that
must be considered is the cost of unfilled jobs. For example,
consider a company in which three operations-related jobs are
vacant. Assume these three vacancies cost the company $300 for
each business day the jobs remain vacant. If the jobs are not filled
for four months, the cost of this failure to recruit in a timely
fashion will be about $26,000.
Although cost is certainly an issue, and some employers are quite
concerned about cost per hire as well as the cost of vacancies,
quality might be an important trade-off. For example, if an
organizational strategy focuses on quality as a competitive
advantage, a company might choose to hire only from the top
15% of candidates for critical jobs, and from the top 30% of
candidates for all other positions. Though this approach may
raise the cost per hire, it will improve workforce quality.These
examples illustrate that recruiting should not just be seen as an
expense, but as part of overall HR planning and strategy. To be
17
effective, recruiters need to integrate efforts involving labor
markets, recruiting responsibilities and goals, and recruiting
sources, including the Internet. Figure 6-1 highlights key
integrative recruiting components.
Strategic Recruiting and HR Planning
It is important that recruiting be treated as a part of strategic HR

planning because it is a key mechanism for filling positions
necessary to get the work done. Recruiting requires an employer
to:
 Know the industry and where to successfully recruit qualified

employees.
 Identify keys to success in the labor market, including

competitorsrecruiting efforts.
Cultivate relationships with sources of prospective employees.
Promote the “company brand” so that the employer is known
as a good place to work.
Use recruiting metrics in order to measure the effectiveness

of recruiting efforts.
Recruiting decisions can identify not only the kinds and numbers of
applicants, but also how difficult or successful recruiting efforts
may be by type of jobs. In addition, effective recruiting focuses on
discovering talent before it is needed.
18
Integrating Recruiting Components
LABOR MARKETS
Because staffing takes place in different labor markets that can vary a
great deal, learning some basics about labor markets aids in
understanding recruit-ing. Labor markets are the external supply
pool from which employers attract employees. To understand where
recruiting takes place, one can think of the sources of employees as a
funnel, in which the broad scope of labor markets
Labor Market Components
narrows progressively to the point of selection and job offers, as

Figure 6-2 shows. Of course, if the selected candidates reject the
offers, then HR staff members must move back up the funnel to
the applicant pool for other candidates, and in extreme cases
may need to reopen the recruiting process.
19
Labor Market Components
Several different means of identifying labor markets exist. One

useful approach is to take a broad view of the labor markets and
then narrow them down to specific recruiting sources. The broadest
labor market component and measure is the labor force
population, which is made up of all individuals who are available
for selection if all possible recruitment strategies are used. For
firms with global locations in multiple countries, the labor
force population can be much larger than that of a business
operating in only one country. For example, some U.S.-based
airlines have customer service centers located in the Philippines,
India, and other countries as well as the United States. The labor
force population for such businesses is much broader than that of
a business operating in a single country.
The applicant population is a subset of the labor force
population that is available for selection if a particular recruiting
approach is used. This population can be broad or narrow
depending on the jobs needing to be filled and the approaches
used by the employer. For example, if a firm is recruiting highly
specialized engineers for multiple geographic locations, the
recruiting methods may involve a broad range of approaches and
sources, including professional associations, convention
attendance, general and specialized websites, using recruiting
consulting firms, and offering recruitment incentives to existing
employees. However, a smaller firm in a limited geographic
location might limit its recruiting for management trainees to
MBA graduates from major universities in the area. This
20
recruiting method would result in a different group of applicants
from those who might apply if the employer were to advertise the
openings for management trainees on a local radio station, post a
listing on an Internet jobs board, or encourage current employee
referrals and applications. Figure 6-3 illustrates some common
items that affect recruiting applicant populations.
The applicant pool consists of all persons who are actually
evaluated for selection. Many factors can affect the size of the
applicant pool, including the reputation of the organization and
industry as a place to work, the screening efforts of the
organization, the job specifications, and the information avail-
able. It is important to develop an applicant tracking system
when consideringthe applicant pool. Using such a system, both
administra- tively and electronically, can make the recruiting
process more effective.4 For example, when the applicant pool

size increases, recruiters can consistently identify the most effec-
tive future employees for several jobs, and not just fill current
jobs because of a larger supply.
Unemployment Rates and Applicant Population

When the unemployment rate is high in a given market, many
people are looking for jobs. When the unemployment rate is low, there
are fewer applicants. Unemployment rates vary with business cycles and
present very different challenges for recruiting at different times. For
instance, in some U.S. states, when many automobile plants closed
and workers were laid off, manufacturers in other industries and even
retailers experienced a significant increase in their numbers of job
21
applicants, making recruiting easier and larger applicant pools a
fact.
Different Labor Markets and Recruiting

The supply of workers in various labor markets differs substantially
and affects staffing. Organizations recruit in a number of different
labor markets, including industry-specific markets and occupational,
educational and technical, and geographic markets. Labor markets
can be viewed in several ways to provide information that is useful
for recruiting. It is important to understand the broad labor markets
from which candidates are identified and attracted. These labor markets
can include both internal and external sources, which will be
discussed later.
Industry and Occupational Labor Markets

Labor markets can be classified by industry and occupation.
Depending on economic and industry aspects, recruiting
emphases can be changed. For example, the biggest increases in
U.S. jobs until the year 2016 are going to be in the positions of
registered nurses, retail sales and customer service
representatives, home health aides, and post- secondary teachers.6

These data illustrate that recruiting will be more difficult in filling
these jobs during the next few years. Trucking and welding jobs
are also expected to present significant recruiting difficulties
Recruiting for smaller firms can be challenging. For instance, a

small certified professional accounting (CPA) firm had to work
extensively to identify which CPA professionals would prefer
22
working in a small firm rather than a large one. One key to this
firm’s recruiting efforts was to clearly identify the unique
characteristics of working in a smaller firm, which included
greater assignment variety, more work flexibility, and better
career possibilities.8 Those characteristics would appeal to some

but not all who might apply.
Educational and Technical Labor Markets
Another way to look at labor markets is by considering the
educational and technical qualifications that define the people
being recruited. Employers may need individuals with specific
licenses, certifications, or educational backgrounds. For instance,
recruiting physician leaders for a medical organization led to
the establishment of a special search committee to set goals for
the committee members. Then, as part of recruiting and
selection, the top candidates were asked to develop departmental
vision statements and three-year goals. That information made the
recruiting and selection process more effective.9

Another special labor market is suppliers and contractors for U.S.
military forces. Firms such as Cintas Corporation, with more than
34,000 employees, and Raytheon, with 77,000 employees, serve
as federal government defense contractors. The need to recruit for
specialty jobs in engineering and technology by such firms
illustrates why considering different types of labor markets is
appropriate.
A prominent occupational area that is expected to be extremely
tight during the next few years is the information technology
(IT) labor market. That labor market, which was tight several
years ago, is now becoming tight again as IT is used in a wider
23
variety of jobs.11 Another example of a tight labor market is
that of business professors with PhDs, who are forecast to be in
short supply in the next few years due to the retirement of baby
boomers from faculty positions. Other examples of shortages in
specific labor markets include certified auto mechanics, heating
and air-conditioning technicians, and network-certified computer
specialists.Geographic Labor Markets One common way to
classify labor markets is based on geographic location. Markets
can be local, area or regional, national, or international. Local and
area labor markets vary significantly in terms of workforce
availability and quality, and changes in a geographic labor market
may force changes in recruiting efforts. For instance, if a new
major employer locates in a regional labor market, other existing
area employers may see a decline in their numbers of applicants.
Geographic markets require different recruiting considerations.
For example, attempting to recruit locally for a job market that is
a national competitive market will likely result in disappointing
applicant rates. A catalog retailer that tries to recruit a senior
merchandising manager from the small town where the firm is
located may encounter difficulties, although it may not need to
recruit nationally for workers to fill administrative support jobs.
This example shows how varying geographic labor markets must
be evaluated as part of recruiting.
Global Labor Markets

Employers in the United States are tapping global labor markets when
necessary and expanding export work to overseas labor markets when
doing so is advantageous. Firms in different industries are expanding
in India, China, Indonesia, Romania, Poland, and other countriesThe
24
migration of U.S. work overseas has been controversial. While many
decry the loss of American jobs, some employers respond that they
cannot be competitive in a global market if they fail to take advantage
of labor savings. For example, at some operations in India and China,
U.S. employers pay less than half of what they would pay for
comparable jobs to be performed in U.S. facilities. A significant
number of U.S. and European firms have farmed out software
development and back-office work to India and other countries with
lower wages. However, some advancements in American worker
productivity have made it possible to have fewer U.S. employees to
produce certain items, which has resulted in a cost savings, even at
those employees’ higher wage rates. Hence, those types of jobs are
not being exported to other countries.
The use of the Internet has resulted in global jobs being recruited in
many places, but often recruiting employees for global assignments
requires different approaches from those used for typical recruiting
efforts in the home country. The recruiting processes must consider
variations in culture, laws, and language. For instance, in some
countries, potential recruits like to work for European and U.S. firms,
so recruiters emphasize the “Western” image. But in other countries,
cultural employer operational differences change how recruiting is
done.
Dealing with foreign labor markets can present challenges. For
example, in China recruiting is regulated and generally requires the
approval of local personnel or labor authorities. Hiring foreign
employees into U.S. jobs must meet certain legal requirements,
including H1 visa requirements. Concerns exist about hiring illegal
immigrants as well.
25
STRATEGIC RECRUITING DECISIONS
When there are economic declines in certain geographic areas and

occupations, a greater number of talented recruits are available, and
recruiting costs can be lower. But whether recruits are plentiful or

scarce, employers must decide on several recruiting issues. These
important strategic decisions for recruiting are discussed next.
Recruiting Presence and Image
Recruiting efforts may be viewed as either continuous or intensive.

Continuous efforts to recruit offer the advantage of keeping the
employer in the recruiting market. For example, with college
recruiting, some organizations may find it advantageous to have a
recruiter on a given campus each year. Employers that visit a campus
only occasionally are less likely to build a following at that school
over time. Also, continuous recruiting may lead to constant Internet
job postings, contact with recruiting consultants, and other market-
related actions.
Intensive recruiting may take the form of a vigorousrecruiting
campaign aimed at hiring a given number of employees, usually
within a short period of time. Sometimes such efforts are the result of
unforeseeable changes in external factors, but they also can result from
a failure in the HR planning system to identify needs in advance or to
anticipate drastic changes in workforce needs.
Employment “Branding” and Image The “employment brand”

or image of an organization is the view of it held by both
26
employees and outsiders.Organizations that are seen as desirable
employers are better able to attract qualified applicants than are
those with poor reputations. For example, one firm had good pay
and benefits, but its work demands were seen as excessive, and
frequent downsizings had resulted in some terminations and
transfers. The result was high turnover and fewer applicants
interested in
employment at the company. That firm had a poor brand or

image as an employer.
Companies can spend considerable effort and money establishing
brand images for their products. Not only can the company brand
help generate more recruits, but it also can help with applicant
self-selection because it affects whether individuals ever consider
a firm and submit applications. Recruiting and employer branding
should be seen as part of organizational marketing efforts and
linked to the overall image and reputation of the organization
and its industry. The HR Best Practices illustrates how a federal
government agency changed its recruitment culture to improve
its image and be more effective in its recruiting efforts.
Organization-Based versus Outsourced Recruiting
A basic decision is whether the recruiting will be done by the

employer or outsourced to someone else. This decision need not be
focused on an “either-or” situation entirely. In most organizations,
HR staff members handle many ofthe recruiting efforts. However,
because recruiting can be a time-consuming process and HR staff and
other managers in organizations have many other responsibilities,
outsourcing is a way to decrease the number of staff needed for
recruiting and free some of their time for other responsibilities.
27
Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) can be done to improve the
number and quality of recruiting candidates, as well as to reduce
recruiting costs.15 Estimates are that RPO is expected to grow

significantly in the near future. Both large and small employers in
different industries outsource such func- tions as placement of
advertisements, initial screening of résumés, and initial telephone
contacts with potential applicants. For example, General Electric (GE)
uses RPO to save time and efforts of HR staff, as well as to target its
recruiting efforts more effectively. Once the RPO activities are done,
the employer’s HR staff members can take over the rest of the
recruiting activities in a cost-effective and timely manner.16
Professional Employer Organizations and Employee Leasing A

specific type of outsourcing uses professional employer organizations
(PEOs) and employee leasing. The employee leasing process is
simple: An employer signs an agreement with the PEO, after which
the staff is hired by the leasing firm and leased back to the company
for a fee. In turn, the leasing firm writes the paychecks, pays taxes,
prepares and implements HR policies, and keeps all the required
records for the employer.
One advantage of leasing companies for employees is that they may
receive better benefits than they otherwise would get in many of the
small businesses that use leasing firms. But all this service comes at
a cost to employers. Leasing companies often charge employers
between 4% and 6% of employees’ monthly salaries. Thus, while
leasing may save employers money on benefits and HR
administration, it also may increase total payroll costs.
28
The PEO and the employment agency are different types of entities.
A PEO has its own workforce, which it supplies by contract to
employers with jobs. However, an employment agency provides a
“work-finding” service for job seekers and supplies employers with
applicants whom they may then hire.
Regular versus Flexible Staffing

Another strategic decision affects how much recruiting will be
done to fill staffing needs with regular full-time or part-time
employees. Decisions as to which should be recruited hinge on
whether to seek regular employees or to use more flexible approaches,
which might include temporaries or independent contractors. A
number of employers have decided that the cost of keeping a regular
workforce has become excessive and is growing worse due to
economic, competitive, and governmental considerations. However,
not just money is at issue. The large number of employment
regulations also constrains the employment relationship, making many
employers reluctant to hire new regular full-time employees.
Flexible staffing uses workers who are not traditional employees.
Using flexible staffing arrangements allows an employer to avoid
some of the cost of full-time benefits such as vacation pay and
pension plans. Flexible staffing may lead to recruiting in different
markets, since it includes the use of temporary workers and
independent contractors.
Temporary Workers Employers who use temporary employees can

hire their own temporary staff members or contract with agencies
supplying
29
temporary workers on a rate-per-day or rate-per-week basis.
Originally developed to provide clerical and office workers to
employers, temporary workers in professional, technical, and
even managerial jobs are becoming more common. The
importance of using temporary workers is illustrated through the
use of computer technology by an educational publisher. The
publisher utilized an automated employment, recruiting, and
screening system to obtain sufficient temporary workers for its
firm. That employer obtained sufficient qualified workers which
resulted in a return on its hiring investment of $6 for every $1 of
cost.17
Some employers hire temporary workers as a way for individuals

to move into full-time, regular employment. Better-performing
workers may move to regular positions when these positions
become available. This “try before you buy” approach is
potentially beneficial to both employers and employees.
However, if individuals come through temporary service firms,
those firms typically bill client companies a placement charge if a
temporary worker is hired full-time. Also, employing temporary
workers as opposed to full-time workers can have implications in
regard to federal laws such as the Family Medical Leave Act, the
Fair Labor Standards Act, and others.1

Independent Contractors Some firms employ independent
contractors as workers who perform specific services on a
contract basis. These workers must be truly independent as
determined by regulations
used by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the U.S.
Department of Labor. Independent contractors are used in a
30
number of areas, including building maintenance, security,
advertising, and others. One major reason for the use of
independent contractors is that some employers experience
significant savings because benefits are not provided to those
individuals.
INTERNET RECRUITING
The Internet has become the primary means for many

employersto search for job candidates and for applicants to look
for jobs. The growth in Internet use is a key reason that the
following employer actions occur:
Adjusting general employer recruiting systems to use new

approaches
Identifying new types of recruiting for specific jobs
Training managers and HR professionals on technical recruiting
sources, skills, and responsibilities
E-Recruiting Means
The growth in the Internet has led both employers and employees
to use Internet recruiting tools. Internet links, Web 2.0 sites, blogs,
twitters, and other types of Internet/Web-based usages have
become viable parts of recruiting. One survey of e-recruiting
software providers identified numerous firms as e-recruiting
clients, and some of them serve more than 1,000 employers. 24 Of

the many recruiting sites using special software, the most
common ones are Internet job boards, professional/career
websites, and employer websites.
31
Internet Job Boards Numerous Internet job boards, such as
Monster and Yahoo! HotJobs, provide places for employers to
post jobs or search for
candidates. Job boards offer access to numerous candidates. Some

Internet locations allow recruiters to search one website, such as
MyJobHunter.com, to obtain search links to many other major job
sites. Applicants can also use these websites to do one match and then
send résumés to all jobs in which they are interested.25 However, a

number of the individuals accessing these sites are “job lookers” who
are not serious about changing jobs, but are checking out compen-
sation levels and job availability in their areas of interest. Despite such
concerns, HR recruiters find general job boards useful for generating
applicant responses.
Professional/Career Websites Many professional associations have

employment sections at their websites. As illustration, for HR jobs,
see the Society for Human Resource Management site,
www.shrm.org, or WorldatWork, www.worldatwork.org. The SHRM
organization has established a Job Posting Center that numerous
recruiters and employers can use to post a wide range of industry
openings.26 A number of private corporations maintain specialized

career or industry websites to focus on IT, telecommunications,
engineering, medicine, and other areas. Use of these targeted websites
may limit somewhat recruiters’ search time and efforts. Also, posting
jobs on such websites is likely to target applicants specifically
interested in the job field and may reduce the number of applications
from less-qualified applicants.
32
Employer Websites Despite the popularity of job boards and
association job sites, many employers have learned that their own
websites can be most effective and efficient when recruiting candidates.
The most successful of these websites are created by highly prominent
firms and take extensive actions to guide job seekers to their firm. 27
Employers include employment and career information on their
websites under headings such as “Employment” or “Careers.” This is
the place where recruiting (both internal and external) is often
conducted. On many of these sites, job seekers are encouraged to e-
mail résumés or complete online applications.
It is important for the recruiting and employment portions of an
employer website to be seen as part of the marketing efforts of the
firm.28 The formatting of the employment section of an

organizational website must be shaped to market jobs and
organizational careers effectively. A company website should market
the employer by outlining information on the organization, including
its products and services, organizational and industry growth
potential, and organizational operations. The attractiveness, usability,
and formatting of an employer’s website can affect job seekers’ view
of that organization positively or negatively.29 See HR On-the-Job

for company website recruiting ideas.
Recruiting and Internet Social Networking
The Internet has led to social networking of individuals on blogs,

twitters, and a range of websites. Many people initially use the social
media more than job board sites.30 Internet connections often include
people who work together as well as past personal contacts and
friends.
33
The informal use of the Web presents some interesting recruiting
advantages and disadvantages for both employers and employees.
Social networking sites allow job seekers to connect with employees
of potential hirers. For instance, some sites include posts on what it is
like to work for a boss, and job hunters can contact the posters and ask
questions. An example is LinkedIn, which has a job-search engine
that allows people to search for contacts who work for employers
with posted job openings.
Firms and employers are now engaging in social collaboration by join-
ing and accessing social technology networks such as MySpace, Facebook,
and many others. Posting job openings on these sites means that millions of
website users can see the openings and can make contact online. Often those
doing recruiting can send individuals to the company website and then
process candidates using electronic résumés or completed online
applications.31
Job Applicants and Social Network Sites Many individuals see social
media and networking websites as a key part of online recruiting. A study of
200 users of one such website indicated that the individuals who were job
seeking were doing so for active reasons such as career opportunities, job
inquiries, and others; relatively few of them were passive job seekers who
were just looking at website information.Almost half of surveyed employers
indicated that instead of using general job boards, they were changing to
social networking and niche job sites for recruiting workers with specific
skills. However, employers who use social networking sites for recruiting
must have plans and well-defined recruiting tools to take full advantage of
these sites.
Recruiting Using Special Technology Means
For a number of years, the Internet has been used by people globally.
Several special Internet tools that can be used as part of recruiting
efforts are blogs, e-videos, and twitters.Blogs and Recruiting Both
34
employers and individuals have used blogs as part of recruiting to fill
jobs. Firms such as Best Buy, Microsoft, Honeywell, and Manpower
have used blogs on which individuals could read and provide content.
For instance, describing job openings and recruiting needs on the Best
Buy blog has resulted in individuals responding to job areas such as
finance, marketing, HR, and other specialties. Numerous other
employers have used blogs to generate recruiting results as well.34
E-Video and Recruiting With video capabilities of all types

available, employers are using videos in several ways. Some firms use
videos to describe their company characteristics, job opportunities,
and recruiting means. Suppliers such as Monstor.com, CareerTV, and
others have worked with employer clients to produce online
recruitment videos.35
Some of the online videos contain “employment games” for both
current and potential employees that focus on creating positive
employment images. People who are interested in working for the
company can then follow up by using online job application
documentation and information. For example, MITRE, a systems
engineering firm, developed a “Job of Honor” video game that drew
more than 5,000 hits in one year; more than 600 people in the
United States and from 25 other countries became registered players
in the game. Participation levels like this have led employers to
increase job-related recruiting and follow-up activities using Web-
based linkages.36
Recruiting through Twitter Twitter can be used for many different

purposes, including personal, social, legal, and employment-related
messages. More than 7 million people have joined Twitter.com to
35
become “tweeters.” One professional sent a tweet in January 2009,
and by June of that year more than 20,000 people had responded by
contacting JobAngels with tweets.
Legal Issues in Internet Recruiting
With Internet recruiting expanding, new and different concerns have

arisen. Several of these issues have ethical and moral as well as legal
implications. The following examples illustrate some of these
concerns:
When companies use screening software to avoid looking at the

thousands of résumés they receive, are rejections really based on
the qualifications needed for the job?
How can a person’s protected-category and other information
be collected and analyzed for reports?
Are too many individuals in protected categories being excluded
from the later phases of the Internet recruiting process?
Which applicants really want jobs? If someone has accessed a job
board and sent an e-mail asking an employer about a job opening,
does the person actually want to be an applicant?
What are the implications of Internet recruiting in

terms of confidentiality and privacy?
Loss of privacy is a potential disadvantage with Internet

recruiting. Sharing information gleaned from people who apply to
job boards or even company websites has become common. As a
company receives résumés from applicants, it is required to
track those applicants and report to the federal government. But
36
the personal information that can be seen by employers on
websites such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others may
be inappropriate and can possibly violate legal provisions. Also,
blogging creates enough possible legal concerns that regulations
may be implemented by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission
(FTC).
Employment lawyers are issuing warnings to employers about
remarks and other characteristics posted on LinkedIn, Facebook,
and Twitter. According to one survey of employers, about three-
fourths of hiring managers in various-sized companies checked
persons’ credentials on LinkedIn, about half used Facebook, and
approximately one-fourth used Twitter.40 Some of the concerns

raised have included postings of confidential details about an
employee’s termination, racial/ethnic background, or gender and
the making of discriminatory comments. All of these actions
could lead to wrongful termination or discrimination lawsuits.
Thus, because Internet usage has both advantages and
disadvantages for recruiting, legal advice should be obtained, and
HR employment-related policies, training, and enforcement
should include such advice.
Advantages of Internet Recruiting
Employers have found a number of advantages to using Internet

recruiting. A primary one is that many employers have saved
money using Internet recruiting versus other recruiting methods
such as newspaper advertising, employment agencies, and
search firms, all of which can cost substantially more.
Another major advantage is that a very large pool of applicants
can be generated using Internet recruiting. Individuals may view
37
an employer more positively and obtain more useful information,
which can result in more individual applications.41 In fact, a

large number of candidates may see any given job listing,
although exposure depends on which Internet sources are used.
One side benefit of Internet recruiting is that jobs literally are
posted globally, so potential applicants in other geographic areas
and countries can view job openings posted on the Internet. It also
improves the ability to target specific audiences, including more
diverse persons, through the use of categories, information, and
other variables.42
Internet recruiting also can save time. Applicants can respond
quickly to job postings by sending electronic responses, rather
than using “snail mail.” Recruiters can respond more rapidly to
qualified candidates in order to obtain more necessary applicant
information, request additional candidate details, and establish
times for further communication, including interviews.43
A good website and useful Internet resources also can help recruiters
reach “passive” job seekers—those who have a good job and are not
really looking to change jobs but who might consider it if a better
opportunity were presented. These individuals often do not list themselves
on job boards, but they might visit a company website for other reasons
and check out the careers or employment section. A well-designed
corporate website can help stimulate interest in some passive job seekers,
as well as other potential candidates.
Disadvantages of Internet Recruiting
38
The positive things associated with Internet recruiting come with a
number of disadvantages. Because of broader exposure, Internet
recruiting often creates additional work for HR staff members and
others internally. More online job postings must be sent; many more
résumés must be reviewed; more e-mails, blogs, and twitters need to be
dealt with; and expensive specialized software may be needed to track
the increased number of applicants resulting from Internet recruiting
efforts. Another issue with Internet recruiting is that some applicants
may have limited Internet access, especially individuals from lower
socioeconomic groups and from certain racial/ethnic groups. In
addition, many individuals who access Internet recruiting sources are
browsers who may submit résumés
just to see what happens, but they are not actively looking for new jobs.
Internet recruiting is only one approach to recruiting, but its use has
been expanding. Information about how Internet recruiting methods
compare with other, more traditional approaches is relevant. Also,
how well the Internet recruiting resources perform must be compared
to the effectiveness and inte- gration of other external and internal
recruiting sources.
39
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Literature review on the labour market
Summary Market systems development for decent work – ‘The Lab’ – is
a new three-year ILO research and knowledge-generation project that will
pioneer innovative ways to measure and maximise job improvements
when working to facilitate pro-poor change in value chains and sectors.
As part of this project, the ILO commissioned a systematic literature
review of the qualitative and quantitative impacts on the labour market of
value chain development interventions. This review aims to distil the
results of studies, in order to answer the question of what are the
outcomes of value chain interventions covering the quantity and quality
of jobs created. A search of websites, digital libraries, bibliographic
scientific databases and publically available databases using keywords
related to job quality and quantity resulted in 99 studies, 53 of which
were selected based on quality criteria and because they included
information on both value chain interventions and impacts on job quality
and/or quantity. Evidence from these studies indicates that the quality of
evidence on interventions in value chains leading to job creation and
increases on job quality is highly variable and generally scarce. Whilst
evidence is presented that interventions can lead to manual and semi-
40
skilled work, particularly in agricultural, natural resource and
manufacturing sectors in both developing and developed countries,
concrete evidence in the literature that specific interventions result in
large scale, long term jobs is scarce and points to the need for further
study. This could be due to (i) such impacts not occurring or (ii) that such
impacts do occur but were not captured in the literature reviewed, given
the cr iteria concerning the quality of the literature and the search terms
used and/or that (iii) the timescale between value chain interventions
occurring and such large scale impacts being measured, has been
insufficient to allow reporting and be captured by this review. More
examples were provided in the literature that chain interventions have
impacted job quality, particularly through training, skills and
empowerment resulting in income enhancement and improved working
conditions. Certification interventions provide a number of examples of
job quality impacts, based on scientifically robust evidence. Negative and
indirect impacts on the quantity and quality of jobs were noted, pointing
to the need for interventions to be supported, for example by good impact
logics, baseline assessment for which to measure performance and
progress, and monitoring and assessment. The evidence presented in the
literature reviewed largely makes assumptions about causality and
attributes outcomes and impacts on job quality and quantity to the
interventions. There was some discussion about external influences that
could have affected or caused the impacts noted and attributed to the
value chain intervention, reference to a baseline situation or a
counterfactual situation. Many studies indicated that the situation and
changes were strongly context related e.g. to land and resource
ownership, migration, societal changes, education, other projects etc.
Recommendations are provided for the ILO on selecting value chains for
41
interventions, and for action research in value chain development
projects.
Key words: Labour market, value chain interventions, impacts, work, job
creation, job quality
The user may reproduce, distribute and share this work and make
derivative works from it. Material by third parties which is used in the
work and which are subject to intellectual property rights may not be used
without prior permission from the relevant third party. The user mus t
attribute the work by stating the name indicated by the author or licensor
but may not do this in such a way as to create the impression that the
author/licensor endorses the use of the work or the work of the user. The
user may not use the work for commercial purposes.
Evaluating Recruiting Satisfaction The satisfaction of two groups is
useful in evaluating recruiting. Certainly the views of managers with
openings to fill are important, because they are “customers” in a very
real sense. But the applicants (those hired and those not hired) also are an
important part of the process and can provide useful input. Managers can
respond to questions about the quality of the applicant pool, the
recruiter’s service, the timeliness of the process, and any problems that
they see. Applicants might provide input on how they were treated, their
perceptions of the company, and the length of the recruiting process and
other aspects. Evaluating the Time Required to Fill Openings Looking at
the length of time it takes to fill openings is a common means of
evaluating recruiting efforts.64 If openings are not filled quickly with
qualified candidates, the work and productivity of the organization are
likely to suffer. If it takes 45 days to fill empty positions, managers who
need those employees will be unhappy. Also, as noted earlier, unfilled
positions cost money. Generally, it is useful to calculate the average
amount of time it takes from contact to hire for each source of applicants,
42
because some sources may produce recruits faster than others. For
example, one firm calculated the following averages for nonexempt,
warehouse and manufacturing jobs:
Evaluating the Cost of Recruiting Different formulas can be used to

evaluate recruiting costs. The calculation most often used to measure
such costs is to divide total recruiting expenses for the year by the
number of hires for the year:The problem with this approach is accurately
identifying what details should be included in the recruiting expenses.
Should expenses for testing, background checks, relocations, or signing
bonuses be included, or are they more properly excluded? Once those
questions are answered, the costs can be allocated to various sources to
determine how much each hire from each source costs. It is logical that
employers should evaluate the cost of recruiting as a primary metric.
Recruiting costs might include costs for employment agencies,
advertising, internal sources, external means, and others.65 The costs also
can be sorted by type of job—costs for hiring managers, secretaries,
bookkeepers, and sales personnel will all be different. Certainly, cost is
an issue, and some employers are quite concerned about cost per hire, but
quality might be the trade-off. For example, if an organizational HR
strategy focuses on quality as a competitive advantage, a company might
choose to hire only from the top 15% of candidates for critical jobs.
General Recruiting Process
Metrics Because recruiting activities are important, the costs and benefits
associated with them should be analyzed. A cost–benefit analysis of
recruiting efforts may include both direct costs (advertising, recruiters’
salaries, travel, agency fees, etc.) and indirect costs (involvement of
operating managers, public relations, image, etc.). Cost–benefit
information on each recruiting source can be calculated. Comparing the
43
length of time that applicants hired from each source stay in the
organization with the cost of hiring from that source also offers a useful
perspective. Yield Ratios One means for evaluating recruiting efforts is
yield ratios, which compare the number of applicants at one stage of the
recruiting process with the number at another stage. The result is a tool
for approximating the necessary size of the initial applicant pool. It is
useful to visualize yield ratios as a pyramid in which the employer starts
with a broad base of applicants that progressively narrows. As Figure 6-
10 depicts, to end up with five hires for the job in question, a sample
company must begin with 100 applicants in the pool, as long as yield
ratios remain as shown. A different approach to using yield ratios
suggests that over the length of time, organizations can develop ranges
for crucial ratios. When a given indicator ratio falls outside that range, it
may indicate problems in the recruiting process. As an example, in
college recruiting the following ratios might be useful
44
Selection Rate
Another useful calculation is the selection rate, which is the percentage

hired from a given group of candidates. It equals the number hired
divided by the number of applicants; for example, a rate of 30% indicates
that 3 out of 10 applicants were hired. The selection rate is also affected
by the validity of the selection process. A relatively unsophisticated
selection program might pick 8 out of 10 applicants for the job. Four of
those might turn out to be good employees. A more valid selection
process might pick 5 out of 10 applicants but all perform well. Selection
rate measures not just recruiting but selection issues as well. So do
acceptance rate and success base rate.
Acceptance Rate
Calculating the acceptance rate helps identify how successful the

organization is at hiring candidates. The acceptance rate is the percent of
applicants hired divided by the total number of applicants offered jobs.
After the company goes through all the effort to screen, interview, and
make job offers, hopefully most candidates accept job offers. If they do
not, then HR might want to look at reasons why managers and HR staff
cannot “close the deal.” It is common for HR staff members to track the
reasons candidates turn down job offers. That analysis helps explain the
rejection rate in order to learn how competitive the employer is compared
with other employers and what factors are causing candidates to choose
employment elsewhere.
Success Base Rate
A longer-term measure of recruiting effectiveness is the success rate of

applicants. The success base rate can be determined by comparing the
number of past applicants who have become successful employees
45
against the number of applicants they competed against for their jobs,
using historical data within the organization. Also, the success base rate
can be compared with the success rates of other employers in the area or
industry using benchmarking data. This rate indicates whether the quality
of the employees hired results in employees who perform well and have
low turnover. For example, assume that if 10 people were hired at
random, it might be expected that 4 of them would be satisfactorily
performing employees. Thus, a successful recruiting program should be
aimed at attracting the 4 in 10 who are capable of doing well on this
particular job. Realistically, no recruiting program will attract only the
people who will succeed in a particular job. However, efforts to make the
recruiting program attract the largest proportion possible of those in the
base rate group can make recruiting efforts more productive in both the
short and long term.
What is labor market data?

Labor market data includes research, statistics, and intel on more
than 99% of the workforce. Hiring teams and recruiters often have
access to labor market information, which includes public statistics
compiled by various government agencies at the federal, state, and local
levels.Thanks to the rise of advanced data analytics, we can now take
labor market information to the next level. At Emsi Burning Glass, labor
market data is compiled from a wide variety of sources, such as:
Government data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Census

Bureau, etc.
Online job postings from hundreds of millions of employers, filtered by

company, job title, skills, keywords, and more.
46
Online profiles and resumes. This public, self-reported information can
be gleaned from a LinkedIn profile, for example, and varies from a
candidate’s job history and education to their specific skills, abilities,
certifications, etc. Securing real-time, intelligent labor market data like
this may help drive an organization’s recruiting strategy and retention
practices. Bad news: Organizations aren’t usually leveraging this data.
Without the resources required to scale and compete for talent, they lose
top candidates to their competitors and wind up making second-best
hiring selections. That’s why so many hiring teams in this boat have
turned to network-based recruiting for help.
What does a network-based recruiting process look like?

Network-based recruiting leverages the gig economy, connecting
employers who need positions filled with freelance recruiters who work
when and where they want. Using a recruiting network platform like
Relode, the crowd of independent recruiters and our network of 60k
“Pros” who make referrals can pick and choose the jobs that make sense
for them to work on.
Depending on the people in their network, recruiters and Pros may

specialize in sourcing or referring candidates within a specific industry or
generalize in a little bit of everything. Network-based recruiting is
considered the future of recruiting because it benefits agents, employers,
and candidates simultaneously.
Recruiters become their own boss. They can create their own schedule,
working full-time or as a side hustle. And they get paid when the
candidates they submit or refer are hired.
47
Employers can scale their hiring needs with freelance recruiters for a
fraction of the cost. Network-based recruiting results in 50% cost
savings over traditional staffing. Rather than paying 20% of a new hire’s
salary to a recruiting agency, organizations only invest 10% (on average).
Candidates trust the process because they know their recruiter.

Unlike a headhunting agency, potential hires in network-based recruiting
come from the crowd’s contacts. These friends, former colleagues,
neighbors, etc., know each candidate’s skills and experience, making
finding best-fit roles faster and easier.
Even though high-growth organizations may not be at the scale or size to

invest in labor market data directly, many are using network-based
recruiting.
So what if a talentplace platform incorporated labor market data?
How labor market data influences network-based recruiting

If hiring teams at growth-minded companies want to learn the supply and
demand of candidates, they traditionally post the job ad and see what
candidates they get.
Let’s say an employer is seeking a diverse software engineer in Coeur

d’Alene, Idaho. With a population of just 50,000 residents, an employer
might not have any idea whether a candidate like this is even available.
And they definitely won’t know the type of competition they’re facing to
onboard them.
However, organizations and network-based recruiters leveraging a strong

labor market data set would have these answers. Then they could make
48
intelligent hiring decisions based on actual candidate supply levels and
statistics for compensation and diversity.
Real-time data helps hiring teams stay objective so they can set
realistic talent acquisition goals and compete in the real world.
Once they know the reality of the talent market, recruiters, hiring
managers, and leadership will be empowered to craft better job
descriptions, offer competitive compensation packages, and make the
right hire the first time around.
5 benefits of combining labor market data with network-based

recruiting
Netflix has one of the best algorithms to recommend content to its

subscribers based on their demographics and watch data.
Labor market data in the hands of hiring teams and network-based

recruiters could result in the same level of personalization and direction.
Instead of endlessly scrolling through a stack of resumes generated by

ambiguous job titles and vague job descriptions, recruiters could deliver a
hand-curated collection of best-fit candidates with the skills organizations
need.
Combining labor market data with network-based recruiting lets hiring

teams:
1. Identify and target the right markets
49
Labor market data helps teams identify the best markets and locations to
recruit for specific positions.
You can compare the number of current job openings with the number of
employees currently holding that job title by county, city, metro area,
drive time, or ZIP code.
This gives organizations a real-time look at the competition that exists in

specific locales. It also helps recruiters identify the best places to search
for remote candidates. Want to quickly gain expertise in unfamiliar
regions or talent markets? Global labor data compares markets abroad to
help organizations decide where to expand. It also gives recruiters a better
idea of the skills landscape in those areas.
Once you know the best markets to target, you can run job ads your
desired candidates will actually see.
2. Recruit for niche and specialized skills
Labor market data not only highlights demand in specific markets, but
common skillsets for those in-demand positions. This allows
organizations and recruiters to dig beneath unreliable job titles to find and
compare candidates with must-have skills, niche qualifications, and
impressive certifications.
3. Offer competitive compensation packages
Many hiring teams still use “gut feels” to decide if their salary is in the
right range and competitive. With labor market data, you can see
estimated salary ranges by skills and experience based on combined wage
data from government sources and online job postings. This allows
50
organizations to get realistic about fair, competitive compensation
packages.
A target salary range for each new hire will indicate whether
organizations need to raise salary expectations, include a sign-on bonus,
or add more employee benefits to attract top-level prospects away from
competitors. This data also helps recruiters negotiate compensation
packages for passive candidates on the fence about making a shift in
employers.
4. Predict staffing patterns and easily scale hiring
Internal recruiting teams want scalable ways to manage the unpredictable

surges and swift declines in recruiting. They don’t want to temporarily
ramp up a new team member to handle these surges, nor have to let
anyone go during a hiring freeze. Labor market data reveals hidden
patterns that may take the unpredictable guesswork out of hiring
scalability. Teams can review real-time job level data, including
compensation, supply and demand, and DE&I metrics by occupation or
industry specific to any location. So hiring teams may be able to plan
their talent acquisition in advance rather than scrambling at the last
minute.
When combined with network-based recruiting, organizations simply

broadcast their job to the crowd of independent recruiters. These
recruiters then start looking for the right candidate within their networks.
To meet predicted staffing demands, recruiters with access to this data

may decide to beef up their presence in an up-and-coming industry or
engage more with candidates fitting this niche.
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5. Increase workforce diversity and inclusivity
Data creates fantastic opportunities to spot possibilities your competitors

are missing. And increasing diversity and inclusivity in the workforce is
one of the top recruiting trends.
Following outdated talent acquisition methods means organizations or

freelance recruiters may be sourcing the same types of candidates. This
happens when hiring teams show a preference for alma maters, former
employers, or even their familiar and close-knit network.
But labor market data includes a diversity index based on race/ethnicity,

gender, age, abilities, and more. You can explore diverse talent pools for
every occupation and industry. And this may open up candidate
possibilities you never considered.
Labor market data + network-based recruiting = a perfect hiring

match
Talent is the most important asset for organizations and network-based

recruiters. So if you continue to make critical decisions with limited or
incomplete data, you might as well be wearing a blindfold.
If you want to stay ahead of your competitors, you need labor market data
in your corner. This bird’s eye view of the workforce allows
organizations and recruiters to connect the right talent with their perfect-
fit roles.
Hiring teams will then be operating from a place of empowerment, using

real-time data to inform their recruiting process, compensation plans, and
future talent goals.
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It’s time to let sophisticated data analytics do the heavy lifting, so you
can focus on relationship-building, talent nurturing, and other essential
tasks requiring a personal touch.
CHAPTER III
RESERCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
The labour market is constantly changing. Sectors of industry grow while

others are shrinking. Some occupations become relatively more important
while others decrease in importance, and employers tend to change the
requirements for qualifications to fulfil these occupations. On the other
side of the labour market the supply of workers with a certain
qualification limits the recruitment possibilities for employers. On the
labour market, therefore, matching processes take place which bring
together supply and demand, which constantly have to adjust to the
changing circumstances. The last decades there have been several
tendencies which raised the need to forecast trends in occupations and
qualifications. First of all, an adequate education has become an
53
important factor in economic production. More and more not only the
level, but also the direction of a training is relevant for both individual
and social reasons. Secondly, the large individual and governemental
investments in the educational system ask for a careful consideration of
the way in which resources and utilized. For optimal decisions at
individual and policy level, adequate information is needed which
anticipates future trends in supply and demand for certain qualifications.
The most prominent method to deal with the projection of future
imbalances between supply and demand for certain types of education, or
qualifications, is the so-called manpower requirement approach. In the
manpower requirement approach typically forecasts are made of the
future labour market situation of types of education, in which demand and
supply are forecasted independently. The basic assumption of this
approach is that the demand (or requirement) for labour of a certain type
of education can be recognised as such in a sensible way. Both forecasts
requirements and supply are compared and if the supply does not match
the requirements, labour market problems are predicted. This comparison
leads to a surplus or to a shortage, and these are, in the pure requirement
approach, regarded as discrepancies which have to be bridged by an
adequate policy, because in case of a surplus educational resources are
inefficiently used and in case of a shortage economic goals cannot be
attained. In case of an adequate policy these gaps in case they were
predicted will therefore not be observed afterwards. The original aim of
the manpower requirement model has been an instrument for educational
planning.' If, as in a market system, the government has no significant
role in the educational decisions of students, the forecasts of the
educational structure of the future labour market might, nevertheless, be
important. The forecasts can be used as public information which is
relevant for students. Borghans (1993) shows that the provision of labour
54
market forecasts to students may improve their educational choice, and
therefore reduce the mismatch between supply and demand. In such a
situation it is not guaranteed anymore that students' choices will
automatically adjust to information about a gap between supply and
demand such that the expected gap will disappear. In this market based
framework students will not directly change their behaviour because of
the existence of a gap between supply and demand, but discrepancies at
the market will affect the market position of different types of education
(e.g. changes in the wages, job levels, or in the level of unemployment).
These changes in the market position, might, if correctly anticipated,
affect students' behaviour. In a more pragmatic view the gaps, predicted
by the manpower requirement approach, are therefore regarded as
indicators for the future labour market
In the market framework, furthermore, it might be questioned what is the

meaning of a requirement. In amarket the optimal situation, i.e. a
situation without mismatch,2 is a situation in which supply,
representedby the preferences and capabilities of the students, and
demand, represented by the productionpossibilities of employers, are
optimally balanced. The implicit aim in a market context therefore is not
ademand side production target, but is implicitly constructed by both
supply and demand sidecharacteristics. Furthermore, in actual practice
there often is for the fulfilment of a specific job, a large scope for
substitution between workers with a different educational background.
There usually is not a one-to-onerelationship between education and
occupation as is (implicitly) assumed in a basic manpower
planningmodel. Workers with a specific educational background have the
opportunity to switch to different occupations, while employers have the
flexibility to recruit workers with different educational backgrounds.
55
From this market point of view the approach of predicting surpluses and
shortages for educational types in the usual manpower requirement
approach has several, closely connected, shortcomings. Firstly,
theprediction of a surplus or shortage is, as remarked above, an abstract
theoretical construct. In actual practice a shortage as such will not
necessarily be noticed. Surpluses are possibly observed byincreasing
unemployment, lower wages, or people changing to lower level jobs.
Shortages might manifest themselves in difficulties to fill vacancies,
higher wages, or the hiring of people for certain jobs with a less
appropriate education. The labour market has a some flexibility to react
on discrepancies betweenrequired and offered qualifications. A second
shortcoming of the requirement approach is that it does not take into
account the fact that surpluses or shortages for one type of education
influence the labour market situation of other types. For some types of
education (e.g. higher education) surpluses do, mainly, not lead to
unemployment, but result in crowding-out processes. The higher educated
get jobs at a lower level and therefore the demandfor people at the
intermediate level decreases. The usual independent projections of supply
and demanddo not take into account these substitution effects. A third
disadvantage of the straight surplus/shortage forecasts is that, due to the
hypothetical character, it is not possible to make straightforward
evaluations of the forecasts. The model only predicts thehypothetical gap
between supply and demand, which can not be measured directly. Ex post
measurement requires additional forecasts about what will happen with
the shortage or the surplus. They provide no direct information about the
'requirements' itself. The most important consequences of this is that
trends in employment actually observed do not necessarily directly reflext
underlying trends in the need for certain qualifications, but are also the
resultsof adjustment processes on the labour market. To make right
56
interpretations of the actual trends in occupations and qualification
requirements, but alsoin order to be able to make appropriate forecasts of
these trends, it is therefore important to developtools which provide
insight in these developments. This paper gives an overview of the
approach used bythe Research Centre for Education and the Labour
Market to cope with these problems. This approachconsists of, on the one
hand, a method to measure similarities or overlaps in occupational
domains between types of education, and, on the other hand, an explicit
model of substitution processes which occur due to demand-supply
imbalances. The paper both deals with the theoretical framework of this
approach and provides empirical examples obtained from the recent
forecast for the Dutch labour market till the year 2000. The next chapter
will investigate the problem of interpreting trends in required
qualifications, in the context of a flexible labour market. In chapter 3 the
structure of the Dutch labour market is decribed, in which the main point
of attention is on the flexibility of the market. Chapter 4 discusses the
Manpower Requirement Model with Substitution, developed by the ROA
while in chapter 5 empirical results of the earlier mentioned forecasts
provide an example of this approach. Finally in chapter 6, we will discuss
the possibilities these models provide to obtain more information about
trends in required qualifications and occupations, but also will mention
some important research questions. These questions point to future
theoretical research which seems to be very relevant for the improvement
of the insight we have in tendencies at the labour market. Such
investigations might further improve the transparancy of the labour
market developments and therefore improve decisions both at individual
and policy level.
2 The interpretation of requirements
57
As mentioned in the introduction, the traditional manpower planning
models depart from the assumption that every occupation requires certain
qualifications. Implicitly in this approach is the thought that more
qualifications do not contribute to the fulfilment of the job, while less
qualifications imply a serious shortcoming in the functioning of the
person involved in this job (see Blaug, 1967). Opposed to this, an obvious
conclusion from the fact that in actual practise the match
betweenoccupation and qualification shows some flexibility, is that
requirements for a specific job are not exogeneously to the labour market,
but are the outcome of the allocation process on the labour market. The
match between supply and demand is not only determined by the needed
qualifications but will also be regulated by the balance of supply and
demand. The possibilities to recruit somebody with a certain qualification
and the costs of recruitment (both searching costs and wages) influence
employers decision who to employ for a certain occupation. This means
that if a certain group of workers becomes more scarce, employers will be
forced to provide better working conditions for these people or to switch
their recruitment to other groups on the labour market. The demand for
one group of workers might therefore be caused by the shortages of
others. This view on the functioning of the labour market, which will be
empirically illustrated in the next chapter, seems at first sight to
contradict the traditional manpower planning model in which the demand
for each occupation is confronted with the supply from certain
educational categories. In some recent papers (Borghans and Heijke,
1996, Wieling and Borghans, 1995 and Borghans and Willems, 1995) it
has been shown however that also from the view point of a flexible
labour market, manpower requirement projections may provide very
useful information.
58
CHAPTER IV
DATA INTERPRETATION.
How Labor Market Data Analysis Empowers Individuals.
When it comes to data empowering individuals, you need to look at both

sides of the table. Labor market data analysis can empower the hiring
manager or the recruiter as well as the job applicant, though the process
and data source may differ. Today we will be looking at how data can
enable both the recruiter and the applicant to make better decisions and
make the process more seamless.
Labor Market Data Analysis: The Applicant
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Let’s look at the applicant first. I think all of us have been a job applicant
at some point of time or other. And we have received interview calls. And
have done background research before joining a startup. We have gone
through Glassdoor to read reviews, to know about the work culture, and
to get an idea of what salary we should be negotiating. But what if I told
you that there an automated way to go about doing this? And there is
more that you can do to prepare yourself before going for that dream
interview, all using the data in hand!
If you are a job applicant and you are doing background research on a
company, you need to dig up quite a bit to get a bigger picture. If it is a
larger, well-known company like Facebook or Google, then this might
not prove to be a hassle. But if you are joining a startup. With 10 people,
you need to be sure of the founders, the people working there, their
credibility, and their goal. Web scraping can help you with this. You need
to search for all occurrences of the name of your company in Google
search as well as Google news search. Labor market data analysis can aid
in keeping pace with the market trends.
In case your company is a very small one. I would recommend you do the
same with the name of your founders just to be sure. This will lead you to
articles both positive and negative. As well as customer reviews, news-
pages, special mentions, testimonials of older employees, and more! This
can prove to be a treasure trove of data, that you can get easily and would
give you a much bigger picture of the company that you want to join.
You should also be getting some information on the company’s details on
government websites since almost all countries require some amount of
company information to be publicly available.
60
You can view the paid-up capital, the type of license that the company
owns (which would explain the sector of business that it is targeting),
who all are the directors of the company, and sometimes even the name
of the parent company if one exists.
But that is all about the company itself, what about how much it pays?
Interview Questions, reviews, and how it treats employees? For this, I
would recommend you scrape data from multiple places. Getting data on
employees of the company from Linkedin. It would give you a fair idea
of what type of people with what sort of credentials are currently working
at the company. Labor market data analysis can aid in keeping pace with
the market trends.
Their years of work experience. The tech-stacks that they are experts at,
and the previous companies that they worked at. Can give you a fair idea
of what kind of background you would require to apply to specific roles
in the company. On the other hand. GlassDoor data can help you
understand the salary that you can ask for. The types of benefits that you
can expect as well as a general overview of how good or bad the
management of the company is. Another website not traditionally scraped
in such a situation, but can end up being a boon is Quora.
Scraping Quora for all questions and answers. The name of the company
can unearth information that you may have had no idea about. I used data
from Quora to choose which company to join. When I had two offer
letters. But then at that time, it was all manual and it took me hours to do
such tasks.
Labor Market Data Analysis: The Recruiter
61
The recruiter, on the other side of the table, can use data just as efficiently
as the applicant. Among the tasks that a recruiter has to handle.
Shortlisting candidates is one of the toughest and takes a lot of time. A
basic filter created by the hiring manager to separate ones that don’t fit
the bill. Some manual work will still needed to scrape out the best
profiles. But the job reduced manifold, and this way you would not be
shortlisting someone who might have applied randomly. Labor market
data analysis can aid in keeping pace with the market trends.
If you are a recruiter who needs to hire for multiple job profiles. You can
even use algorithms that will help you match the best fits for each profile
from a pool of candidates.
In case you just have a job post and are not sure about the requirements
that applied- if it is a generic role. To say a software engineer you can use
web scraping to find the most commonly mentioned requirements. And
good to have for that profile and use it to create your job post.
Be it making sure that the recruiting budget handled or the right

candidate’s profiles handed on to the person concerned. Data and
analytics can streamline an HR personnel’s job to a great extent. Today
some tools can go through video recordings of interviews and highlight
the ones that it finds best based on multiple data points. But a human
touch required in the recruiting process until AI learns how to feel
empathy.
Conclusion
Whether you are a recruiter or a job applicant, you are highly dependent
on job data and job posts. Want to get the job data-feed that you can plug
into your system and run algorithms on? That’s why we have
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our automated job scraping tool- JobsPikr. Which can provide you with
a fully automated data feed without the hassle of maintenance and
infrastructure? You can build services on top of the data easily. You can
use custom filters to decide what sector you want your job feed from.
Which location you want to target, and more.
Importance Data Analysis and Interpretation in Recruitment
In today's world, data analysis and interpretation have become an integral

part of almost every business process. Recruitment is no exception. The
recruitment process is a crucial aspect of any organization as it lays the
foundation for the success of the company. Hence, it is imperative that
recruiters make use of data analysis and interpretation to make informed
decisions and optimize the recruitment process.
Data is every where and it can be used for deriving various Intreprations
and inferences, But inorder to do that we should understand the data.
As Far as i am concerned a meaningful data analysis and interpretation

should follow the below steps
1. Identification of Objectives for Data Analysis
2. Finding Matrixes to which are capable of fulfilling the

objectives(in here we have matrices like Time to fill, Time to
Hire etc..
3. Adopting a best tool for Processing Data ( I prefer google sheet

and Google Data studio)
4. Creating a database structure and applying necessary

formatting
5. Data updating( for Real time updating Use Google Form)
6. Visualization of Data
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7. Deriving conclusion and Decision Making
Iam not diving detailed explanation for each and every step, for eveyones
understanding just leaving key Recruitment matrixes
What is Recruitment Metrics? Why is it Important?
Recruitment metrics are crucial tools that provide insight into the
effectiveness of the recruitment process. These metrics can help recruiters
identify areas that need improvement and determine the success of their
recruitment efforts. Some Key Recruitment Matrixes include
1. Time to Hire :Time to hire is the duration between the start of the
recruitment process and the time a candidate accepts the offer. This
metric helps us understand how efficient their recruitment process is and
how quickly they can fill a vacancy.
2. Time to Fill :Time to fill is the duration between the creation of a job
opening and the time a candidate is hired. This metric is crucial as it helps
us to measure how long it takes to fill a position and identify areas that
need improvement.
3. Optimization of Recruitment Funnel: Recruitment funnel

optimization is the process of analyzing the recruitment process to
identify bottlenecks and improve the overall efficiency of the recruitment
process. This metric helps recruiters to streamline the recruitment process
and make it more effective.
4. Cost/Hire :Cost/hire is the cost of recruiting and hiring a candidate.

This metric helps us to determine the cost-effectiveness of their
recruitment process and identify areas where they can reduce costs.
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5. Recruitment Conversion Ratio: The recruitment conversion ratio is
the percentage of candidates who make it through the recruitment process
and are eventually hired. This metric helps us to measure the
effectiveness of their recruitment process and identify areas that need
improvement.
Why Data Analysis and interpretations is Important in Recruitment ?
1. Identifying Recruitment ChallengesData analysis can help us to

identify the challenges that they face during the recruitment process. By
analyzing data,
2. We can identify bottlenecks in the recruitment process and take steps
to overcome them.
2. Improving Quality of Hires
Data analysis can help us to identify the key factors that contribute to the
success of a candidate in a specific role. By analyzing data, We can
identify the skills and characteristics that are necessary for success in a
particular role and make better hiring decisions.
3. Streamlining Recruitment Process
Data analysis can help us to streamline the recruitment process and make
it more efficient. By analyzing data, We can identify areas that need
improvement and take steps to make the recruitment process more
effective.
4. Reducing Recruitment Costs
65
Data analysis can help us to identify areas where they can reduce
recruitment costs. By analyzing data, recruiters can identify the most
cost-effective recruitment methods and channels and make better
decisions about where to allocate their recruitment budget.
In conclusion, data analysis and interpretation play a crucial role in

recruitment. By making use of data analysis and interpretation, We can
identify areas that need improvement and take steps to optimize the
recruitment,thereby making an efficient Recruitment process for you
company
The role of data analytics in recruitment
Data analytics involves the collection and interpretation of relevant data.

In recruitment, this process allows us to predict better ways to source,
assess, and select candidates. As a result, we’re able to hire more
efficiently and effectively.
Below, we’ve detailed five important ways that data analytics enhances
the recruitment process.
1) Benchmarking candidates
Recruiters can use data analytics to evaluate new candidates. For
example, by pinpointing the company’s top performers and identifying
their hard and soft skills, we can determine appropriate qualifications and
expectations for potential employees. This allows us to meet business
requirements and make more lucrative hires.
2) Improving candidate sourcing

By analyzing the quantity and quality of applicants from various job
boards, you can identify and prioritize the platform that works best for
your needs. This way, you’ll avoid wasting resources on platforms that
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don’t bring in high quality leads, thereby improving your time and cost
per hire.
3) Setting key performance indicators

Key performance indicators (KPI) can help you measure hiring success.
By strategizing and setting goals against your KPI, you’ll know where to
direct your hiring efforts.
4) Reducing hiring bias

All companies can benefit from a diverse workforce. Data-driven
recruitment often allows us to see candidates from a more objective
viewpoint. Instead of hiring based on biases, we can use data to evaluate
a potential employee’s skills and qualifications. Data analytics can also
help us understand current company demographics and set diversity goals
for the organization.
5) Building a more cost- and time-effective strategy

Analyzing recruitment data can help us recognize bottlenecks in our
recruitment strategy. This practice can enhance our hiring processes and
improve the quality of our hires.
Next, let’s consider four important recruitment metrics.
1) Number and quality of applicants

The number of responses to your job postings can help you assess and
adjust your recruitment process. For example, if a job posting yields
many low-quality applicants, this could indicate that the job description is
too vague. If a lot of candidates abandon the application process partway
through, it could mean that your application is too complex.
2) Applicant-to-interview ratio
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Tracking the applicant to interview ratio can help you better understand
what to look for in a candidate. By using proper screening and assessment
tools, you can analyze patterns and improve the efficiency of your hiring
process.
3) Offer-to-acceptance ratio
If more candidates are rejecting your offers than accepting, this is your
cue to reevaluate your approach. You may need to provide better offers,
revamp your employee value preposition (EVP), or improve the overall
candidate experience. Setting industry benchmarks to elevate employer
branding and revise compensation is key to attracting and retaining talent.
4) Time and cost per hire

Tracking the time and cost per hire can help you optimize your
recruitment strategy. By reviewing the steps of your hiring process and
the average time to hire, you can see which parts of the recruitment
process need improvement. The cost per hire can help you analyze which
resources provide a better return on investment.
Implementing data analytics

Applicant tracking systems and recruitment dashboards help track data,
interpret patterns, address bottlenecks, and give actionable insights on
ways to optimize the hiring process.
It is important to gather enough data from different sources to identify

trends. We suggest defining the metrics you’d like to analyze over a
period and collecting the appropriate data.
Data analytics can also help recruiters proactively plan targets, deadlines,
and budgets.
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Zoho Recruit provides a customizable dashboard that tracks the
candidate’s journey from start to finish. Our software’s advanced
analytics provides built-in visualizations and enables you to sync
candidate data from your other platforms. You can also develop and
analyze reports with stakeholders to create the perfect recruitment
strategy for your organization.
Online data in labour market research: Trends and characteristics
Efforts to understand labour market matching date back to at least the

1960s. Nonetheless, until relatively recently, the empirical work on job
vacancies has been quite sparse. Even today, basic questions remain
difficult to answer: for instance, how workers are assigned to jobs; what
share of jobs is filled through a formal application process; how many
people apply to a typical advertised vacancy; how many applications a
typical job seeker submits; and how job applicants decide where to apply.
This situation reflects the fact that these aspects of matching are rather
time- and context-specific (Kuhn 2014).
One likely reason for the slow progress in the field is that before the
Internet started taking on the role of “labour market matchmaker”,
obtaining reliable data about job vacancies and applicants was relatively
difficult. Regardless of whether the data were obtained through
surveys (Abraham 1983; Barron and Bishop 1985; van Ours and Ridder
1992), public employment office databases (van Ours 1989), or by
painstakingly collecting individual advertisements published in
newspapers (Jackson 2007; Dörfler and van de Werfhorst 2009; Álvarez
and Hofstetter 2014), the data suffered from selection bias and other
assorted representativeness issues.
Over the course of the 2000s and 2010s, labour market matching shifted
increasingly towards the Internet; this has benefited job seekers by
69
improving access to information about vacancies, and allowed employers
to benefit from a larger pool of job candidates (Autor 2001; Kuhn and
Mansour 2014; Piróg 2016). This shift to an online labour market has also
opened new opportunities for research and policy applications. At the
same time, newspapers stopped being relevant as a data source. In the
US, since the 1950s the Conference Board organization had
systematically surveyed the number of vacancies posted in the “Help
Wanted” section of the newspapers, but it stopped publishing its findings
in 2008, after failing to see any increase since the 1990s boom. This
failure was attributed to the migration of vacancies to the
Web (Anastasopoulos et al. 2021).
The Internet allows researchers and policy practitioners to access a large
volume of information about jobs and job candidates. Most commonly,
the data used originate from individual job sites (Beblavý, Kureková, and
Haita 2016; Drahokoupil and Fabo 2022; Marinescu and Wolthoff 2020),
as well as commercial websites where people post their personal profiles
or CVs, such as LinkedIn or Indeed (Kureková and Žilinčíková 2018;
Mamertino and Sinclair 2019; Apaza, Vidal, and Chire 2021; Pejic-Bach
et al. 2020). In some cases, however, data are instead taken from an
aggregator, such as the European Public Employment Services network,
EURES (Kureková et al. 2016), or companies such as Emsi Burning
Glass, which collect and extract information from large volumes of job
vacancies from many websites (Hershbein 2016; Deming and Kahn 2018;
Fabo and Kahanec 2020; Acemoglu et al. 2020). A major advantage of
this data source is that the data collection is regular rather than a one-off
event. Thus, the data can be analysed as time series and not just cross-
sectionally (e.g. Acemoglu et al. 2020; Leitner and Reiter 2020).
Social media is a comparatively less developed alternative. Nonetheless,
several notable studies have used social media data to analyse the labour
70
market (see the more detailed overview of alternative online data sources
in Box 1). Specifically, Twitter has been used to predict labour market
flows by counting the incidence of searches such as “lost my job” over
time (Antenucci et al. 2014). Additionally, there has been growing
research conducted with LinkedIn data (Mamertino and Sinclair 2019;
Tambe 2014; Tambe et al. 2020). Overall, social media remains a
powerful but underutilized tool for studying labour markets; this is due to
difficulty in obtaining data, as well as “making sense” of often rather
opaque signals present in the social media content (Lenaerts, Beblavý,
and Fabo 2016).
Importantly, the Internet has a dual role in labour market research: it
serves as an vital source of data, but at the same time it is transforming
the labour market (Horton 2011). A large number of studies have tried to
estimate and/or forecast important macroeconomic variables such as
unemployment using Google Trends data; mostly in developed
countries (Askitas and Zimmermann 2009; Fondeur and Karamé 2013;
McLaren and Shanbhogue 2011), but also in China (Su 2014, using
Baidoo). Empirical analyses have shown that online job vacancies are
suitable data sources for measuring aggregate economic activity in the
labour market (Hershbein and Kahn 2016; de Pedraza et al. 2019).
Importantly, the Internet has a dual role in labour market research: it
serves as an vital source of data, but at the same time it is transforming
the labour market (Horton 2011). A large number of studies have tried to
estimate and/or forecast important macroeconomic variables such as
unemployment using Google Trends data; mostly in developed
countries (Askitas and Zimmermann 2009; Fondeur and Karamé 2013;
McLaren and Shanbhogue 2011), but also in China (Su 2014, using
Baidoo). Empirical analyses have shown that online job vacancies are
71
suitable data sources for measuring aggregate economic activity in the
labour market (Hershbein and Kahn 2016; de Pedraza et al. 2019).
Internet labour market data typically cover a specific labour market, such
as a country; but in some cases they include multiple countries (or sub-
country units, such as the US states), in a comparative design (Azar et al.
2020; Fabo, Beblavý, and Lenaerts 2017; Modestino, Shoag, and
Ballance 2020). Most studies focus on the entire labour market, but
several investigate specific occupations or industries, such as
logistics (Kotzab et al. 2018), nursing (Kobayashi et al. 2016), or data
science (Debortoli, Müller, and vom Brocke 2014; Ecleo and Galido
2017).
A clear majority of published studies of online labour market data focus
on the US, UK or EU labour markets, which is in line with the general
over-representation of research focusing on developed countries in
academia (Das and Do 2014). Nevertheless, the Western-centric focus in
the literature should not overshadow the growing number of important
publications that cover developing and emerging nations’ economies. In
particular, they deal with big labour markets such as China (Fang et al.
2020; Kuhn and Shen 2013; Maurer-Fazio and Lei 2015; Xu et al. 2017;
Zhu et al. 2016), India (Chowdhury et al. 2018; Nomura et al. 2017),
Russia (Pitukhin, Astafyeva, and Astafyeva 2020; Skhvediani et al.
2021), and Pakistan (Bilal et al. 2017; Matsuda, Ahmed, and Nomura
2019).
The large size of these markets generates a huge amount of labour market
data: for instance, a recent study focusing on the Chinese market
identified 20 million job adverts, offering 105 million job vacancies,
posted on just one online platform in four months (Fang et al. 2020).
Other emerging and developing countries that have been studied include
countries as diverse as the Philippines (Ecleo and Galido 2017),
72
Ukraine (Muller and Safir 2019), Belarus (Vankevich and Kalinouskaya
2020), Kosovo (Brancatelli, Marguerie, and Brodmann 2020),
Peru (Apaza, Vidal, and Chire 2021), and Mexico (Campos-Vazquez,
Esquivel, and Badillo 2021).
Lastly, research using online vacancy data appears more frequently than
research relying on job applicant/CV data; these two aspects of labour
markets are rarely studied simultaneously, although some examples
exist (Fabo and Kahanec 2020; Matsuda, Ahmed, and Nomura 2019).
This imbalance might be due to the generally easier access to information
about vacant jobs, rather than applicant information, which some portals
offer on a paid basis (e.g. Profesia.sk). However, it could also reflect the
greater interest in labour demand research, for which there are fewer
alternative data sources of vacancy data.
Online vacancy postings and CVs are the most widely used Web-based
data sources, but they are not the only ones. Some of the widely used
alternative Web-based or Web-collected data sources are:
Web-based surveys. Probably the most widely used is the WageIndicator
survey, which covers 130 countries, including many emerging
economies, for which other data are often unavailable. The respondents of
the survey are self-selected on a voluntary basis in response to the online
campaign, which results in a biased dataset. There is a lively discussion
among scholars as to what extent this bias can be sufficiently addressed
using methods such as weighting (Fabo and Kahanec 2018; Smyk,
Tyrowicz, and van der Velde 2018; Tijdens and Steinmetz 2016). In
developed countries, online panels with probabilistic sampling have
recently emerged as a promising means of collecting high-quality,
reliable data (Das, Ester, and Kaczmirek 2018). Nonetheless, they are
costly and rely on a high level of Internet access, and thus are less
practical for most emerging countries.
73
There has been an immense body of literature produced recently on the
role of labour market platforms, such as Uber, Amazon Mechanical Turk,
or Upwork. These platforms are relevant for the “standard” labour
market, because they often disrupt traditional dynamics present in these
markets. This can happen because the platforms allow outsourcing of
some tasks that were previously performed by employed workers to
people working through platforms, who are classified as self-employed
(e.g. some institutions have replaced in-house drivers with an Uber
service); or alternatively, because they allow enterprises to perform
offshore work overseas (Drahokoupil and Fabo 2016)
Advantages of online labour market data

Notwithstanding the well-known limitations, the online labour market
data represent a powerful tool that allows researchers to study the labour
market. A key motivation for using online labour market data is their
granularity and detail; together with a large number of observations, this
allows researchers to access detailed information on the demand and
supply of skills in the labour market, and generate insights on important
topics. These include the skill mismatch (Beblavý, Kureková, and Haita
2016), school-to-work transition (Buchs and Helbling 2016), the skills
and educational characteristics of new occupations (Acemoglu et al.
2020; Beblavý et al. 2016; Rios et al. 2020), the evolution of skill
demand over time (Blair and Deming 2020), and lifelong
learning (Kotzab et al. 2018). Box 2 presents a discussion of the
importance of skills as a variable in the analysis of online labour market
data, and provides selected findings about skills, tasks and occupations
based on the analysis of online data.
An important characteristic of online labour market data is their real-time
availability. Real-time labour market data have been used to anticipate,
74
for example, unemployment trends (Askitas and Zimmermann 2009;
Simionescu and Zimmermann 2017) or GDP growth. Real-time
availability implies that data can be analysed with a much shorter time
delay than survey-based data about labour markets, while it can also
capture the impact and dynamics of unexpected events and shocks, such
as the COVID-19 pandemic (Campos-Vazquez, Esquivel, and Badillo
2021; Fang et al. 2020). For instance, an OECD study identified not only
the sizable dip in vacancy rates at the onset of the pandemic (March–
April 2020), but also the variance between countries, sectoral differences
in fluctuations, and the change in skill requirements connected to the
switch to working from home (OECD 2021); this implies that the impact
of the COVID-related shock varied across a set of dimensions. Moreover,
timely information is useful not only for research, but particularly for
policy makers and educators. For instance, it is well known in economics
that unsuccessful school-to-work transition has long-term implications for
career outcomes (Bloom, Freeman, and Korenman 1988). It is, therefore,
important to be able to advise young people which sectors are growing
despite the recession, and which are the most demanded skills that might
improve their chances in a difficult labour market.
While real-time availability is a key advantage, in some cases, past online
labour market data can also be reconstructed (for example, the job portal
Profesia.sk stores past vacancies and has provided researchers with
vacancy and CV data over a retrospective time period: see e.g. Beblavý et
al. 2016). Such data can in principle be used as longitudinal data, to study
trends in skills supply and demand, the emergence of new occupations
and their skill requirements, or transformations such as skill-biased
technological change. This enables cost-effective access to longitudinal
and sometimes cross-sectional data about skills (such as via the EURES
platform, Skills Panorama). Moreover, this longitudinal aspect allows the
75
study of changes within occupations, which is rarely possible with other
data sources.
Large quantities of online labour market go hand-in-hand with
comprehensiveness that online labour market data possibly entail. While
data are typically unstructured (Gandomi and Haider 2015), in principle
the information that can be extracted from the content of job vacancies or
from individual CVs is very comprehensive. In terms of online job
vacancies, information about educational or qualification requirements,
skills or tasks, and required experience is often detailed, and can be
systematically analysed (Beblavý, Kureková, and Haita 2016). Likewise,
online job applicant data in fact contain detailed professional and
educational experience, and personal information (i.e. key socio-
demographic characteristics). With rising competition for jobs, applicants
increasingly highlight key competences or skills – especially IT and
language skills – but also soft skills; this provides comprehensive input
for studying profiles of job candidates (Haddad and Mercier-Laurent
2021; Kureková and Žilinčíková 2018).
It is also important to consider trends that are likely to positively impact
the quality and usability of online labour market data. First, the
recruitment market is moving online in a dynamic way, and in some
developed economies, labour market matching is organized fully online.
In an ILO report, Van Loo and Pouliakis (2020) reviewed online job
markets in the EU28 countries during 2019, and concluded that in
countries such as Estonia, Sweden and Finland, the proportion of
vacancies published online approached 100 per cent, while in others such
as Denmark it accounted for around 50 per cent. Secondly, in part driven
by mismatches, firms are forced to broaden their recruitment processes to
include other occupations and regions, thus in effect enlarging their
76
candidate base (which in turn mitigates demand for higher wages). Both
these trends work in favour of increasing representativeness, and reducing
measurement error (van Loo and Pouliakas 2020). There is now also
strong evidence that the Internet has become an effective tool for
matching workers to jobs (Kuhn and Mansour, 2014), and that poorer
strata of society are increasingly turning to the Internet to search for jobs
because their social capital is weaker (Kuhn, 2014). It is also worth
mentioning that academic research has already influenced concrete policy
initiatives, some of which are summarized in Box 3
In addition to the academic-focused research, there have been several
important applied initiatives to utilize online job market data for
commercial or policy purposes. For instance, in the US, the O*Net
project utilized the online job vacancies collected by the Burning Glass
company to determine “hot technologies” on the basis of employers’ job
postings (Lewis and Norton 2016). The payroll company ADP publishes
monthly employment statistics based on Internet data before official
numbers are made available by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Einav and
Levin 2014). Furthermore several skill-matching platforms have been
developed for the commercial needs of HR departments, such as Burning
Glass (for a list, see Boselli, Cesarini, Marrara et al. 2018, 482).
In Europe, an agency of the European Commission, CEDEFOP, has
piloted a cross-country system of scraping and systematizing vacancies
across the EU member states (The Skills Panorama), to support
discussion on the use of online vacancy data for policy purposes (Boselli,
Cesarini, Marrara, et al. 2018; van Loo and Pouliakas 2020). A more
recent initiative is the ESSnet big data project, which pilots the use of
online vacancy data for official statistics. Some countries in the EU have
already experimented with online labour market data as an auxiliary
77
source of labour market statistics (such as the Experimental Online Job
Vacancy Index in Sweden). A good example of a non-Western
application is the SkillsFuture government project in Singapore
(www.myskillsfuture.gov.sg/), which uses the data from job postings,
combined with insights from stakeholders’ interviews, to support policy
and programme design
Sources of biases in online labour market data
Notwithstanding the evident advantages discussed in the previous
chapter, the online labour market data suffer from various biases,
particularly a lack of representativeness. Non-representativeness in
applicant data might have different causes to that affecting vacancy data.
With respect to job applications and job searches, the main source of non-
representativeness is linked to the fact that the universe of jobs
intermediated online is not equal to the universe of new jobs that exist.
Internet access is an important driver of this, as individuals’ ability to
access the Internet remains unequal across and within countries, and
varies by socioeconomic status, age or skills. Other aspects that intervene
in decisions about online job seeking include a sector’s level of
informality, as well as the level of social capital that sustains referrals,
which are more widely used in lower-skilled jobs and in smaller
enterprises.
Regarding vacancy data, the individual labour market segments are
unlikely to advertise open positions to an equal extent. While Internet
access has become less of an issue for firms, factors such as the intensity
of labour demand, nature of work, level of informality in a given sector,
or aspects such as firm size, all affect the likelihood of a vacancy being
published online in the first place (Sostero and Fernandez-Macias 2021).
Sectors such as construction or agriculture are in some countries less
78
amenable to the use of online labour intermediation platforms, while
micro and small enterprises are more likely to rely on informal and non-
advertised hiring processes. We now turn to discussing these aspects in
greater detail.
The extent to which the population is connected to the Web varies greatly
between different countries, but also within them. As evident from Figure
1, Internet access is close to universal in high-income countries, and is
available to a majority in most upper-middle income countries and some
lower-middle income countries. However, the majority of the population
in low-income countries and many lower-middle income countries are
still without access to the Internet. The poorest, least educated and the
most distant from the labour market, even in high-income countries, are
typically digitally disconnected (Warschauer 2003; van Dijk 2006; 2020;
Scheerder, van Deursen, and van Dijk 2017). Furthermore, other specific
groups such as females, older workers and rural populations are likely to
be unable to go online in countries where Internet access is not
widespread (Birba and Diagne 2012). Hence, information about online
labour market matching is likely to have biases in less developed and
emerging economies, due to limited or skewed Internet access.
79
In countries where Internet access is close to universal, the bias of
analysis using Internet labour market data might be less
significant (Askitas and Zimmermann 2015); however, there is still an
observable bias in the data, leading to an over-representation of tertiary
educated workers and job opportunities for better-educated
workers (Muller and Safir 2019; Štefánik 2012). For example, Carnevale,
Jayasundera and Repnikov (2014) studied Burning Glass Technologies
data for the US labour market, and estimated that 80–90 per cent of job
vacancies requiring a tertiary degree (bachelor’s and higher) are posted
online, compared to about 40–60 per cent of job advertisements requiring
a high-school diploma. In spite of this limitation, some researchers have
used online labour market data to understand demand in low-skilled
occupations or in unstable, typically less skilled jobs (Beblavý,
Kureková, and Haita 2016; Kureková and Žilinčíková 2016).
Another important dimension to consider is that of informal labour. From
the existing ILO analyses, we know that six workers out of ten work in
the informal economy. Unlike some past predictions, we know that this
number is not necessarily decreasing. The issue is not limited to emerging
80
countries, and particularly affects vulnerable populations such as women,
uneducated people, or migrants (ILO 2021). The reasons for informal
employment vary; for instance, enterprises might opt to operate
informally to avoid regulations applying to a formal employment
relationship. Additionally, even formal firms might employ workers
informally; in some cases this reflects the preference of workers, as in the
case of online crowdworkers preferring to make some quick money on
the side. Thus, informal employment might be associated with lower
numbers of vacancies being published either online or offline.
Nevertheless, we see that some online job portals also cover the informal
labour market, such as Babajobs in India (see Nomura et al. 2017).
Next, particularly in the developing and emerging markets, a major part
of the workforce finds itself in a self-employment arrangement, due to
necessity or choice; even though their work is similar to that performed
by employed workers (ILO 2016; Poschke 2019). Self-employed work
does not typically generate vacancies (Dunlop 1966), and people might
be particularly prone to being inaccurate when describing their self-
employment experience in CVs (Jones 1984).
In the formal economy, there are also reasons for not advertising jobs
publicly. Enterprises and job seekers might opt for an informal (internal)
approach for multiple reasons, including lower search costs, ability to
avoid initial screening, and because seeking workers or work through
informal networks is likely to result in opportunities and applicants
located in the near vicinity (van Ours 1989). The sheer size of the online
job markets demonstrates that there are many situations where a formal
job search is nonetheless initiated; but we need to be mindful of the
limited generalizability of any patterns identified in the job postings, even
in countries with a high share of Internet users and an insignificant
81
informal economy. That being said, the relatively low cost of advertising
job vacancies (or of finding a worker via a CV posted online) might
empower actors who would not have initiated formal recruitment in the
pre-Internet era (Sodhi and Son 2010).
In addition to non-representativeness, validity and reliability might also
be of concern when using online data. Both vacancy and CV data are self-
reported, and there are no tools embedded to check the validity and
reliability of information provided. For example, Internet job boards can
be flooded by resumés that in fact no longer correspond to people who
are searching for a job – known as “stale” resumés (Kuhn 2014) – while
the same might be true in the case of vacancies. Nonetheless, some
researchers consider online information about job applicants to be more
truthful and accurate (van Loo and Pouliakas 2020). Moreover, vacancies
might be posted online even after the position has been filled, or one
posted vacancy can in practice mean more job openings. These
specificities warn of a measurement error due to duplicates and the
lifetime of a vacancy. Research has also identified that firms might use
vacancies as an advertising or company branding tool, which is likely to
affect the choice of vacancy content (Winzenried, 2020).
Particular concerns might also arise for cross-country comparative
research. Existing studies have shown that employers in different
countries seem to use very different strategies in terms of their expressed
expectations for skills or education; this might be due to underlying
differences in the functioning and institutional underpinning of national
labour markets across Europe (Kureková et al. 2016). Similar differences
have been identified among formally identical jobs advertised in different
sectors, occupations and skill levels (Beblavý, Kureková, and Haita 2016;
Brandas, Panzaru, and Filip 2016; van Loo and Pouliakas 2020). Brandas
82
et al. (2016), who studied academic vacancies worldwide, also pointed
out a lack of semantic and structural compatibility of data mined from
different sources. Winzenried (2020) provided examples of job vacancies
that greatly vary in the “density” of skills they require, and emphasized
the importance of “implicit” knowledge in vacancy posting, which can be
country-, sector- or occupation-specific (such as the significance of
education or experience)
CHAPTER V
FINDING OF THE STUDY AND SUGGESTION.
Abstract
83
This paper attempts to investigate how employers' recruitment strategies
(in terms of the recruitment method used and the applicants'
characteristics) change in response to different conditions on the
relevant regional labour market.
Our empirical results show that the hiring of unemployed candidates and
the use of the public employment service are events more likely to
happen in a slack regional labour market. Moreover, the use of
advertisements and the hiring of already-employed job seekers are more
likely to occur in the presence of excess demand on the relevant regional
labour market.
This supports the view that shifts in recruitment strategies may be driven
by cyclical fluctuations in expected variations (in both the size and
composition) of the pool of potential applicants.
Introduction
The present paper aims to investigate employers' hiring behaviour over

the business cycle. Job search and hiring are in fact continuous activities
in dynamic economies (Holt and David, 1966). However, search and
hiring intensity vary in response to different macroeconomic conditions
(for a supply side perspective, see Osberg, 1993).
A common result of studies on gross job creation and destruction

Leonard, 1987, Davis and Haltiwanger, 1992, Cramer and Koller, 1988 is
that both take place simultaneously at any time of the business cycle, i.e.
in shrinking as well as in expanding industries. Furthermore, activities on
one side of the market have external effects on the costs of the other side
(thin and thick markets effects, Diamond, 1982). Along these lines,
Pissarides (1994) developed a model of on-the-job search and two
categories of jobs: “good” (more expensive to set up, with high
84
productivity and high wages), and “bad” (less expensive to set up, low
productivity and low wages). In this model, employers have a rather
passive search behaviour: they do not signal whether they are posting a
bad or good job, and limit themselves to offering the vacant job to the
first applicant who is ready to accept it. Unemployed job seekers accept
both good and bad jobs, while employed job seekers accept good jobs
only. On-the-job search increases employers' expected benefits from
creating good jobs. Therefore, during periods of expansion, when more
employed job seekers become available in the labour market, it should be
possible to observe the creation of more vacancies and of relatively more
good jobs. This model predicts that a larger share of already-employed
workers are hired during booms when a relatively large proportion of
good jobs are created. Conversely, in a recession, hiring from the pool of
unemployed would become more important, and consequently, fewer
vacancies with a relatively high proportion of bad jobs are observed.
The predictions from Pissarides' model are consistent with observed gross
worker flows in the labour market. Burda and Wyplosz (1994) show, for
different countries, that the outflow from unemployment becomes more
important during recessions, but it becomes much less important during
periods of economic recovery. In contrast, the importance of job-to-job
transitions is less evident during recessions, but they become much more
important during periods of economic expansion (see also Burgess,
1993).
Micro-econometric studies on employers' recruitment behaviour,

however, suggest that, unlike what is assumed in the model, employers'
search behaviour is in fact not passive. For example, Barron et al. (1985)
show that employers do search for applicants actively and that they spend
a considerable amount of time screening applicants. Barron et al. (1997a)
85
show that employers tend to screen more applicants for more important
positions (with high educational requirements and involving training).
Barron et al. (1997b) endogenize the information about the quality of the
match. The authors found that both applicants and vacancy characteristics
strongly influence firms' search both at the intensive (signal offered by
the hiring standards) and at the extensive (number of applicants screened
before a job offer) margin.
In general, employers can activate different recruitment methods to reach

certain groups of job seekers. The public employment service, for
example, best reaches unemployed workers, whereas advertisements
appear to best reach employed workers (see Gorter et al., 1996, Van Ours,
1994, Lindeboom et al., 1994).
The evidence from all these studies is built on single cross-sections of

(filled) vacancies, and therefore changes in recruitment strategies over the
business cycle cannot be captured. In their recent article, Burdett and
Cunningham (1998) advocate that the analysis of employers' search
would be greatly improved if the market conditions the firm faced at the
time of search could be taken into account.
In this respect, Russo et al. (2000) show that employers' search at the
extensive margin changes in response to different conditions in the labour
market. When faced with a tight labour market, employers tend to switch
to the use of the recruitment methods that trigger the highest number of
applications in order to make up for the scarcity of job seekers.2
This paper attempts to add to this literature by analysing changes in

recruitment behaviour at the individual (firm) level at different points of
the business cycle. By doing so, we attempt to uncover the role of
86
employers' preferences for hiring among different categories of applicants
(with particular attention to the unemployed)
The structure of the paper is as follows: Section 2 discusses the effect of

different labour market conditions on recruitment and postulates how
employers will adapt. Section 3 contains a description of the data set, and
Section 4 introduces the statistical model (to test the postulated adaptive
behaviour). Section 5 presents the results of the empirical analysis.
Finally, Section 6 concludes.
Labour market conditions and firms' recruitment strategies
In this section, we discuss the impact of different labour market

conditions on the recruitment strategy (the choice of the recruitment
method) and on the hiring decision. Holzer (1996) argues that employers
choose among the various recruitment methods on the basis of their
relative costs and benefits.3
Data and method
The data set used for the empirical application is derived from a survey
on the recruitment behaviour of Dutch firms “How do firms recruit?”.
The survey is carried out by telephone every 2 months. However, it is not
a panel because each time, a new random sample of firms is used. Here,
we use data for the years ranging from 1991 to 1994, a period which
represents 2 years with a tight labour market (1991 and 1992) and 2 years
with a slack labour market (1993 and 1994). The data set contains
Preliminary analysis and the econometric model
To obtain a first impression of the strength of the relationship between the

choice of the recruitment strategy and the characteristics of the hired
87
applicant(s), we present the contingency table for the full sample in Table
1.
The Pearson statistic (P=1309.918, significant at the 5% confidence

level, χ2(8)=22 at 5% confidence level) immediately signals the presence
of a relationship between the two classifications.15
Estimation results
The result of the estimates are shown in Table 2.16, 17
Conclusions
The aim of the present paper is to analyse empirically how employers

adjust their recruitment strategies (in terms of recruitment method used
and type of applicant sought) in response to changes in the labour market
conditions.
In particular, we find that the use of the public employment service and
the hiring of unemployed candidates are more likely to happen when
there is excess supply in the labour market. The use of advertisements
and the hiring of already-employed job seekers are more
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Jos van Ommeren, Lourens Broersma, Richard

Emmerink and two anonymous referees for valuable and constructive
comments on an earlier version of this paper. We are indebted to Intomart
for kindly providing the data set. The usual disclaimer applies.
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSION
This paper has studied how online data on labour markets can be used to
describe, analyse, understand, refine or predict labour market trends. This
88
relates to the more general aspect of labour demand, but also more
specifically to skills demand and skills changes, in light of the existing
deficiencies of online data: specifically, a lack of representativeness.
The research field that relies on online labour market data has expanded
rapidly in recent years. Our review revealed that this expansion is
characterized by several features. First, research continues to focus on
single countries, with a small number of attempts at comparative work.
Second, research using online vacancy data appears more frequently than
research relying on job applicant/CV data. This might be caused by the
generally easier access to information about vacant jobs, than to applicant
information, which some portals offer on a paid basis. However, it could
also reflect a greater interest in research on the demand for labour, for
which fewer alternative survey data sources are available. Third, while
this research field continues to be driven by a focus on advanced
economies, mainly the US and EU, there is also an evident trend towards
expanding this research to developing countries´ labour markets. These
studies, on average, tend to be less concerned with data biases than
research focusing on advanced economies. Fourth, somewhat to our
surprise, the data limitations of online sources used to study labour
markets often remain undiscussed in terms of the biases, non-
representativeness, or other potential pitfalls of these data. Moreover, this
situation does not seem to be improving with time – in contrast to those
studies that have taken a rigorous approach to understanding the qualities
of online labour market data, and have addressed them using various
methodological or research design approaches.
This paper advances the current debate by offering a mapping of biases
recognized in online labour market vacancies and CV data, and an
overview of approaches and techniques to address the identified biases.
89
We highlight that legitimate research approaches exist, which are
inductive in nature, focused on discovering patterns and trends in
underlying data. These methods are by definition less concerned with
generalizability of findings, as they have different objectives. For this
body of research, online labour market data open new avenues for
understanding developments in labour markets. (Near) real-time
availability, granularity, relative affordability and size represent some of
the key qualities which make online labour market data uniquely suitable
for many forms of analyses – traditional as well as novel ones.
Biases in online labour market data emerge due to a myriad of factors,
including populations’ varying levels of Internet access; different
resources, motivations or opportunities for advertising a vacancy, among
different sectors or firms of different size; as well as higher levels of
informality in some economies or sectors. Most evaluations of biases
pertain to developed countries, and these have identified over-
representation of some sectors (ICT, finance) and under-representation of
others, mainly the public sector and manufacturing. While there are more
skilled than non-skilled vacancies found in the online world, there is no
clear evidence of white-collar vacancies’ over-representation in relation
to blue-collar, as public jobs are prevailingly white-collar. In addition to
the type of work, additional factors such as hiring practices, job turnover
or the levels of informality can shape the probability of vacancies
appearing online.
CHAPTER VII
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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CHAPTER VIII
APPENDIX
91
Performance of jobactive
A key component of jobactive is placing job seekers into employment.
When a job seeker finds a job whether on their own or with assistance
from their provider, that job is called a ‘job placement’.
Outcomes are payable to jobactive providers 4, 12 and 26 weeks after an
individual is placed into employment, unsubsidised self-employment or
an apprenticeship or traineeship. There are two types of employment
outcomes, full and partial.
A full outcome is achieved when an individual earns enough to move
them fully off income support for the outcome period. For individuals
with a partial work capacity or who are principal carer parents, their
reduced working capacity is taken into account.
A partial outcome is achieved when an individual earns enough to reduce
their income support by at least 60 per cent (on average) over the
outcome period, and is only available for 4 and 12 week outcome
payments. For individuals with a partial work capacity or who are
principal carer parents, their reduced working capacity is taken into
account.
Table F.1: Outcomes by type, 1 July 2015 to 31 May 2018
Outcome Partial outcome Full outcome Total outcomes

(share of total) (share of total)
4 Week 121,930 430,890 552,820
(22.1%) (77.9%)
12 Week 161,030 302,920 463,950
(34.7%) (65.3%)
26 Week N/A 289,740 289,740
(100%)
Job Placements and outcomes by stream

Over half of job placements have been for Stream A job seekers, with
45.1 per cent still in employment 26 weeks after their placement.
Table F.2: Placements and outcomes by stream, 1 July 2015 to 31 May
2018
Stream Job placements 4-week 12-week 26-week

(share of total) outcomes outcomes outcomes
(share of total) (share of total) (share of total)
Stream A 6,510 0.6% 1,320 0.2% 1,140 0.2% 620 0.2%
Volunteer
Stream A 595,34 56.5% 307,89 55.7% 265,88 57.3% 177,27 61.2%
0 0 0 0
Stream B 317,11 30.1% 176,07 31.8% 143,58 30.9% 82,530 28.5%
0 0 0
Stream C 135,37 12.8% 67,550 12.2% 53,360 11.5% 29,310 10.1%
92
Stream Job placements 4-week 12-week 26-week
(share of total) outcomes outcomes outcomes
(share of total) (share of total) (share of total)
0
Grand Total 1,054,360 552,820 463,950 289,740
Job Placements and outcomes by duration of

unemployment
Between 1 July 2015 and 31 May 2018, 546,660 of job placements were
for LTU, accounting for 51.8 per cent of all job placements. Of these
93,930 (or 8.9 per cent of all placements) were for those considered to be
ELTU.
Figure F.1: Outcomes by duration of unemployment, 1 July 2015 to 31
May 2018
600,000
Placements 4-Week Outcomes 12-Week Outcomes 26-Week Outcomes
507,700
500,000
400,000
300,000
256,620
232,870
222,410 219,860
200,000
149,530
125,180 125,440
104,680 101,760 93,930
100,000
64,460 58,170 45,590
35,100
17,570
0
Under 12 months 12 to 23 months 24 to 59 months 60 months or more
Placements and outcomes by selected cohorts
jobactive is helping more disadvantaged job seekers move into

employment. For example, between 1 July 2015 and 31 May 2018,
180,170 placements were for people with a disability. Of these, 43,300
achieved a 26-week outcome (or 14.9 per cent of all 26-week outcomes).
93
Table F.3: Placements and outcomes by selected cohorts, 1 July 2015 to 31
May 2018
Selected cohort Job 4-Week 4-Week 12- 12- 26- 26-
Placeme Outcom Outcom Week Week Week Week
nts es e Rate Outcom Outcom Outcom Outcom
es e Rate es e Rate
People with 180,170 96,070 58.5% 77,810 49.6% 43,300 31.3%
Disability
Culturally and 170,970 96,550 65.9% 81,910 58.7% 52,930 43.2%
Linguistically
Diverse
Parents 120,600 73,540 70.0% 62,540 62.9% 37,020 42.2%
Mental Health 74,810 40,570 60.9% 32,720 51.8% 17,270 31.6%
Ex-Offenders 110,110 49,790 51.5% 39,150 42.4% 22,230 27.1%
Indigenous 96,190 47,840 57.3% 37,920 47.9% 21,670 31.0%
Homeless 96,840 45,810 52.6% 36,150 43.4% 20,410 27.6%
Drug and Alcohol 68,410 31,130 51.0% 24,270 41.6% 13,100 25.3%
Refugees 44,050 24,860 64.2% 20,560 56.2% 12,890 40.1%
Pre Release 680 370 72.7% 285 58.9% 140 32.9%
Prisoners
Grand Total 1,054,360 552,820 62.4% 463,950 54.8% 289,740 38.9%
Job seekers can be recorded against multiple cohorts. For example, a job seeker can be both Indigenous and a
parent.
Placements and outcomes by industry
The highest number of job placements was in the Other Services industry,
with 277,540 placements between 1 July 2015 and 31 May 2018. Other
Services is a diverse industry which includes firms providing personal
care, funeral and religious services, machinery and automotive repair and
maintenance activities. It should be noted, however, that Other Services is
a small industry, accounting for around 4 per cent of total employment in
Australia. Accordingly, it is unlikely that this industry would have
presented 277,540 placement opportunities and it is more likely that this
is being used as a ‘catch all’ category. The next two industries with a
large number of placements were Accommodation and Food Services and
Retail Trade, two industries that present good entry-level opportunities
due to the prevalence of lower-skilled jobs.
Job seekers who obtained a job placement in the Financial and Insurance
Services industry were more likely to stay in employment, with 56.9 per
cent of job placements converting to a 26-week outcome. Conversely, job
seekers who were placed in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
industry were the least likely to remain in employment, with only 27.1
per cent of job placements converting to a 26 week outcome. However,
this may reflect the high incidence of seasonal and short-term work in this
industry.
94
TableF.4: Job Placements and Conversion Rates by Industry 1 July 2015 to 31 May 2018
Employer Industry Total Job 4-Week 12-Week 26-Week
Placement Outcome Outcome Outcome
s Rate Rate Rate
Other Services* 277,540 59.9% 52.5% 37.4%
Accommodation and Food Services 129,660 55.7% 48.7% 31.4%
Retail Trade 102,910 65.0% 58.9% 41.3%
Construction 96,100 55.7% 47.4% 33.3%
Manufacturing 72,160 67.4% 57.8% 41.5%
Health Care and Social Assistance 66,480 74.2% 70.7% 54.4%
Transport, Postal and Warehousing 59,420 62.2% 54.6% 39.3%
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing 52,750 56.0% 44.1% 27.1%
Administrative and Support Services 44,290 71.5% 63.4% 48.0%
Education and Training 36,120 69.3% 62.3% 44.9%
Professional, Scientific and Technical 32,430 65.5% 56.4% 40.8%
Services
Wholesale Trade 16,080 65.8% 56.8% 40.5%
Information Media and 13,680 70.4% 62.8% 48.4%
Telecommunications
Arts and Recreation Services 11,030 54.6% 46.8% 32.1%
Mining 9,070 74.2% 66.2% 50.1%
Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste 8,960 69.1% 61.1% 45.8%
Services
Financial and Insurance Services 8,680 78.9% 71.8% 56.9%
Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services 8,590 66.2% 58.0% 42.2%
Public Administration and Safety 8,420 68.2% 61.0% 46.7%
Total 1,054,360 62.4% 54.8% 38.9%
*The high number of placements in Other Services is likely due to this industry being used as a ‘catch all’
category
Placements by employer
Between 1 July 2015 and 31 May 2018, there have been 1,054,360
jobactive job placements, with 1,028,789 of these achieved with 308,855
unique employer ABNs.
A total of 61,771 (or 5.9 per cent) job placements are associated with the
top 20 employer ABNs (table below).
Of these top 20 employers, 14 employer ABNs have been identified as
labour hire companies. These account for 40,604 job placements, which
equates to 65.7 per cent of the total job placements of the top 20
employers and 3.9 per cent of total jobactive job placements.
Table F.5: Top 20 Employers ABNs (placements of job seekers)
*Labour Hire Company
95
Time to Exiti
A measure of the efficiency of jobactive services is the time it takes for

job seekers to exit after commencing. Figure F.2 below shows the
cumulative rate of exit from jobactive (up to 30 April 2018) for the job
seekers who commenced between 1 October 2015 and 30 October 2017.ii
Around 60 per cent of job seekers exit jobactive within 12 months of
commencement. As expected, the less disadvantaged job seekers in
Stream A achieve the highest exit rates relative to the other streams.
There are distinct patterns evident for the different streams. For Stream
A, around 25 per cent exit within the first three months and a further
25 per cent exit following three months, with the exit rate diminishing
from that point onwards. This differs somewhat to Streams B and C
where the lower exit rates achieved early on are generally maintained for
a longer period. These distinct patterns may suggest differing servicing
models are required for job seekers with varying times in assistance and
different levels of labour market disadvantage.
Figure F.2: Exit rates from jobactive by fortnight, April 2018
100
90
80
70
Exit rates (%)
60
50
40 All
30 Stream A
20 Stream B
10 Stream C
0
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66
Fortnights from commencement
96
References
i
Davis, Steven J., R. Jason Faberman, and John C. Haltiwanger. 2013. “The Establishment-Level
Behavior of Vacancies and Hiring.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(2): 581–622. Kaas, Leo, and
Philipp Kircher. 2015. “Efficient Firm Dynamics in a Frictional Labor Market.” American Economic
Review, 105(10): 3030–60. Miranda, Mario J., and Paul L. Fackler. 2002. Applied Computational
Economics and Finance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pissarides, Christopher A. 2000. Equilibrium
Unemployment Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Young, Eric R. 2010. “Solving the Incomplete
Markets Model with Aggregate Uncertainty Using the Krusell-Smith Algorithm and Non-stochastic
Simulations.” Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 34(1): 36–41.
ii

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A PROJECT REPORT ON

“RECRUITING AND LABOUR MARKETS”.

ASST.PROF. NAYANA PANIGRAHI

KONARK IDEAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & COMMERCE KALYAN

Project Guide NAYANA PANIGRAHI

I the undersigned SUHAS MARUTI LAWAND here by, declare

Wherever reference has been made top previous works of others it

this project on (SUHAS MARUTI LAWAND) which is a result of co-operation, hard

Also, Ian knowledge my deep sense of gratitude towards my guide ASST.PROF.

I am grateful SHIRIN GONSALVEZ Principal of College& ASST.PROF. NAYANA

Suhas Maruti lawand

1.1 Innovating Recruiting in tight loboun markets

1.2 labor mourkets.

1.3 labour market work

1.4 labour market in india.

1.6 Strategic recruiting and HR planning

1.7 Integrating Recruiting Components

1.8 labour market and recruiting

1.9 Industry and occupational labour market

1.10 Strategic Recruiting Decisions

1.11 Regular versus flexible staffing

1.12 Internet Recruiting.

1.13 To Recruiting and internet social networking

1.14 Recruiting using special technology Means

1.15 legal issues in internet Recruiting

1.16 Advantage Of internet Recruiting

2.1 The labour market

2.2 General Recruiting process.

2.3 labour Market data

2.4 Network-based recruitment process

2.5 talent platform in corporate labour market

2.6 benefits of labour marèt data.

2.7 labour data + network-based recruiting

3.2 The interpretation of requirement

4.1 Data analysis empowens individuals

4.3 Data analysis the recruiter

4.4 Important data analysis and interpreation

4.5 Recruitment metrics

4.6 Important Recruitment

4.5 Role of data analytics in Recruitment

4.6 Important recruitment metrics.

4.7 Implementing data analytics.

4.8 labour market research.

4.9 Sources of online labour market data

* Finding of the study and suggestion.

5.3 labour market conditions

5.4 Data and method

5.5 Preliminary analysis and the econometric

5.6 estimation results.

8.1 Perfomance of job Active

8.2 Job placement and outcomes by duration of

8.3 Placement and outcomes by Industry

8.4 Placement by Employer

8.5 Time to Exit

Innovative Recruiting in Tight Labor Markets

Staffing is the process of matching appropriate peoplewith

2. Recruiting message: what is said about the job and how it is

The applicant pool consists of all persons who are actually

What is the Labour Market?