Using Google Trends to Find People Looking for Jobs, and Utah Jobs
If your business model requires employees to help you provide your good or service, then being able to identify: who is looking for jobs (and more specifically Utah jobs), where they live, and how to reach them can help you fill your job openings. This post shows how you can use Google Trends to find people looking for jobs.
Recruiting Out of State Employees
If your firm is in a position to recruit employees from out of state, then this data should be interesting. These are the states that have the most searches for the keyword “jobs” over the past 12 months. You will also notice the overall trend, and top cities in the country searching for the term “jobs”. South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama are the three top states searching for “jobs”. Looking at the bar chart carefully though, South Carolina has a significant jump on the amount of searches compared to other states. Orlando, Tampa and Denver are the top cities in the country searching for “jobs”. However, the total searches in the subregion states are greater than each of the top states individually.
This data comes from Google Trends over the date range Feb. 1, 2007 – Jan. 31, 2008. As you can see, the national trend of people searching for “jobs” has gradually decreased suggesting lower unemployment on average in the U.S. It seems many people like to look for a new job around the beginning of the new year.
I’ve done some research, and with the chart below you can compare these states that are searching for jobs with that of national averages, such as: national unemployment rate (4.5%), the median HH Income of $48,023, and the percent of population with post-graduate (after high school) education of 27.2%. South Carolina is among the top states with high unemployment levels. Georgia has greater than average unemployment, and also a higher than average income level; possibly suggesting a high level of job dissatisfaction. The trend of dissatisfaction may be supported by the fact that Colorado–with their low unemployment and high wages and better-than-average education level–is the third among states searching for jobs.
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Most Google Searches for “Jobs” by City and State
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States Rank
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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10
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Cities Rank
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South Carolina
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Georgia
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Colorado
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North Carolina
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Alabama
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Wisconsin
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Tennessee
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Virginia
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Florida
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Maryland
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1
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Shaw
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Macon
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Greeley
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Fayetteville
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Montgomery
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Oshkosh
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Murfreesboro
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Quantico
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Pensacola
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Andrews Afb
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2
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Kingstree
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Columbus
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Ft Collins
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Greenville
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Florence
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De Pere
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Clarksville
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Ft Belvoir
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Ormond Beach
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Captiol Heights
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3
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Florence
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Lawrenceville
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Colorado Springs
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Wilmington
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Tuscaloosa
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South Milwaukee
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Jackson
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Hampton
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Ft Myers
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Hyattsville
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4
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Sumter
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Augusta
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Aurora
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Asheville
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Dothan
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Stevens Point
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Chattanooga
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Virginia Beach
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Tallahassee
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Aberdeen
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5
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Dorchester
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Albany
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Grand Junction
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Concord
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Auburn
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Eau Claire
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Mount Juliet
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Vienna
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Jacksonville
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Waldorf
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6
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Beaufort
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Savannah
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Littleton
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Greensboro
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Anniston
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Fond Du Lac
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Johnson City
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Chesterfield
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Daytona Beach
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Patomac
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7
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Columbia
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Athens
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Denver
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High Point
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Mobile
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De Forest
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Gallatin
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Culpeper
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Naples
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Gambrills
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8
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Irmo
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Atlanta
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Englewood
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Rocky Mount
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Pell City
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Kenosha
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Kingsport
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Norfolk
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Gainsville
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Salisbury
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9
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Rock Hill
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Alpharetta
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Boulder
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Hickory
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Huntsville
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Appleton
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Nashville
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Alexandria
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Tampa
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Ft Washington
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10
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Lexington
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|
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Arden
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Leeds
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Green Bay
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Memphis
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Arlington
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Ft Laudersale
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Hagerstown
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Descriptive Statistics
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*UnEmp Rate
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6.1
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4.9
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4.2
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4.9
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4.0
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4.9
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4.9
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3.4
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4.6
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3.5
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*Un Emp Rank
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48
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32
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19
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32
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17
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32
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32
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10
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29
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11
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**Avg Income
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$40,583
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$48,388
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$53,900
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$41,616
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$38,160
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$48,903
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$40,696
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$55,368
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$45,038
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$63,082
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+Education Level %
Post-graduate |
23
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27.1
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35.5
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25.1
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21.4
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25.0
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21.8
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33.2
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25.1
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34.5
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Foreclosure Rank
2007 |
39
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7
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5
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18
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37
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29
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11
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24
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2
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17
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*Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics NOTE: Rates shown are a percentage of the labor force. Data refer to place of residence. Estimates for the current year are subject to revision early in the following calendar year.
Source: **US Census Bureau, median household income by state 2006.
Source: + Educational attainment of persons 18 years old and over, by state: 2000 and 2005
Recruiting Regional Employees
You will notice that Utah is not in the top 10 states searching for “jobs” on Google. However, because we are concerned about Utah businesses, we’re going to identify the states that are searching for “Utah jobs”. According to Google trends, over the past 12 months these are the states searching most for “Utah jobs”.
If you’re looking to recruit people from out of state who are looking for “Utah jobs” specifically, these are the states where you might find your offer welcome. If you’d like to delve deeper into each of those states, click here or on the image. I’ve linked it to Google Trends where you can dive deeper into the state by clicking on the state name. Here are some of the descriptive statistics for each of those states searching for “Utah jobs”.
Proximity is probably the primary factor contributing to why these states appear to be searching most for “Utah jobs”, as would be expected. However, states like New York and Texas are intriguing outliers.
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Most Google Searches for “Utah Jobs” by State
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States Rank
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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10
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Utah
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Idaho
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Colorado
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Nevada
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Arizona
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Oregon
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Washington
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California
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Virginia
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Texas
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Descriptive Statistics
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*UnEmp Rate
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3.0
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2.8
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4.2
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5.5
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4.3
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5.5
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4.5
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5.9
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3.4
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4.3
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*Un Emp Rank
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5
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3
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19
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39
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21
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39
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24
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46
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10
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21
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**Avg Income
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$55,619
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$45,919
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$53,900
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$51,063
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$46,693
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$46,349
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$53,515
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$54,385
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$55,368
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$43,044
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+Education Level %
Post-graduate |
27.9
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23.3
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35.5
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20.6
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25.6
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27.7
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30.1
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29.5
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33.2
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25.1
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Foreclosure Rank
2007 |
15
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20
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5
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1
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8
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22
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21
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4
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24
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12
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Recruiting Local Employees
If you are not concerned with, or equipped to recruit talent from other states, then the trend of people searching for “Utah jobs” from cities within the state of Utah should be very helpful. This graph contains not only searches for “jobs”, but also includes searches for “Utah jobs”. You can see the overall search trends correlate to the national trends, as does the trendline of the “Utah jobs”.
The bottom chart is sorted by the cities searching most for “Utah jobs” (the red line), then the term “jobs” in general, because I thought that would be more helpful for Utah employers trying to find and recruit Utah employees. You’ll notice that Cedar City, Spanish Fork and Logan round out the top cities in the state searching for both “jobs” and “Utah jobs”.
Updated “Jobs”, “Utah Jobs” chart.
If you are responsible for recruiting employees in your organization, then it would probably be smart to give some attention to these Utah cities as key places to start recruiting employees.
Job Advertising
Advertising with digital media would allow you to reach those people who this data represents. Sites like Yahoo’s Hot Jobs, Monster Jobs, Career Builder, or a free listing with local Craig’s List is probably the best avenue for advertising your open positions and filtering by those cities. However, local newspaper or radio adverting might provide access to each of these cities and provide more targeted advertising.
Discussion
I’d like to know whether your company or firm plans to hire employees from out of state or not, and what avenues you have used in the past to recruit that you have found successful.
I heard on the radio today that Utah has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Yet you showed that there is quite a lot of searching for Utah jobs. So, this must be indicative of turnover – that is, EMPLOYED people are searching for jobs, not UNEMPLOYED people. This could be a sign of employee dissatisfaction with their jobs. And search the unemployment rate is so low in Utah, people can easily quit a current job and find a new one. Utah’s job market is now an “Employee’s Market” in the same way that the housing market is a “Buyer’s Market”. It’s the classic forces of supply v. demand.