Thinking about real-time data: Lessons from Indeed job postings - Canadian Economics Association 2022 Meeting

Comparable benchmarks – internal and external Job postings have the potential to hit all three goals • Proxy of job vacancies – “unmet labour demand” • Online job boards a recruitment method for +75% of job vacancies since 2019 • Postings-vacancies not necessarily 1-to-1 • Available in near real-time, at daily frequency • Granularity from “big data”: each posting an individual data point • Job des. [...] Job postings have tracked job vacancies fairly well Canadian monthly job vacancy estimates (nsa Index, Feb-2020 = 100)x Sources: Indeed, last data point: May 2022, Statistics Canada, last data point: March 2022 Posting and vacancy composition similar, with a few differences Share by Province Share by major occupation-group (March 2022) (2021Q4) Source: Indeed, Statistics Canada Indeed data mapped. [...] Granularity: tracking individual job titles “Recruiter” postings per 1000 Canadian job postings (not seasonally adjusted) Source: Indeed, 28-day avg., last data point: May-27, 2022 3. [...] Novel insights: what’s included (or not) in job descriptions? Share of Canadian job postings mentioning hiring incentives (%, not seasonally adjusted) Source: Indeed, 7-day avg., last data point: May-27, 2022 Best practices and looking ahead Dealing Real-time challenges • Noise and random shifts • With more granular data, a greater chance large employers cause swings • Dealing with seasonality whe. [...] Keep up with our research at hiringlab.org/en-ca/ Follow me on twitter! @BrendonBernard_ Slide Number 1 Game plan What makes for useful real-time data (for economists)? Job postings have the potential to hit all three goals Background on Indeed job postings Slide Number 6 Disclaimer Job postings have tracked job vacancies fairly wellCanadian monthly job vacancy estimates (ns.