WANTED Technologies Releases New Job Market Study: Inequality of Skill Shortages Across U.S. Occupations and Locations

Quebec City, Quebec (PRWEB) March 05, 2015

WANTED Technologies (TSX-V:WAN), a leading provider of real-time market intelligence and analytics for staffing and workforce strategies, today announced the availability of its new report, Inequality of Skill Shortages Across U.S. Occupations and Locations. The study confirms suspicions that traditional metrics for measuring U.S. unemployment do not accurately represent the true nature of the employment market.

“Looking at the unemployment numbers as we have historically tells a very small part of the story, and if we continue to look through this limiting lens, it will have a direct impact on economic recovery and job growth,” said WANTED Technologies President and CEO Meredith Amdur. “In this study we identify specific gaps by emerging skills and region that if left unaddressed could threaten economic recovery and growth. It’s critical that employers get smart about where the skilled labor lies.”

Based on ten years of historical employment data spanning one billion unduplicated job positions, the WANTED study details the risks to economic growth that have become more prominent since the 2008-2009 recession. Specifically:

The employment recovery and emerging skills gap in key occupations is not playing out evenly. Miami, Los Angeles, and Denver metropolitan areas show the highest skills gaps, while Minneapolis, San Jose/San Francisco, and Boston emerged relatively stable and able to meet demand.

Minneapolis and Silicon Valley are well positioned for current market needs because they have been attracting and maintaining skills consistent with the need in those metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). But New York and Los Angeles are facing much larger gaps.

Construction and legal occupations did not face a skills gap after the recession. Hiring has stabilized to pre-recession levels with little subsequent gap in the supply of appropriately skilled employees.

A skills gap in STEM jobs was not apparent until 2013 but continues today. In the first two years of recovery post recession, the demand in STEM fields grew twice as fast as the overall average demand and, as of 2013, supply could not continue fast enough to keep up with demand.

The study measured job vacancy and unemployment rates for the pre- and post-recession periods by occupation and region. WANTED’s data reveals that companies in industries that did not typically focus on software-driven efficiencies before the recession have emerged with new needs for those skills. However, many of these organizations reside in regions where the base of available workers does not match the new demand. A copy of the report is available by request here.

About WANTED Technologies

WANTED Technologies helps organizations make intelligent hiring decisions. Combining real-time, talent sourcing data with historical trends, the company’s WANTED Analytics™ data science tool uses big data to align HR and recruiting professionals with global job market realities. WANTED transforms corporate HR into a strategic tool by providing detailed competitive information about employment trends, economic conditions, talent supply and demand, and other pertinent job market statistics. Using data-driven business intelligence, recruiters can develop comprehensive workforce strategies and quickly find top candidates for key positions. Equipped with insights based on exhaustive hiring data, employers make smarter investments in talented personnel that contribute to the long-term success of the enterprise.

WANTED Technologies (TSX-V:WAN) was founded in 1999 with offices in Quebec City, Canada, and New York City. The company currently maintains a database of more than one billion unique job listings spanning more than 10 years, aggregated and normalized from 25,000 sources and parsed into 11,000 occupational categories. For more information, visit http://www.wantedanaltyics.com.

Media contact:

Laurie Gibson

Kickstart for WANTED Technologies

LGibson(at)kickstartconsulting(dot)com

(650) 815-1438

Abby Lombard, Director of Marketing

WANTED Technologies

abby(dot)lombardi(at)wantedtech(dot)com

(212) 242-4703

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