After the pandemic broke out, upwards of 4.8 million people in California alone lost their jobs. After more than a year of vaccinations and economic reopenings, that number is closer to 600,000 people still unemployed, but many, especially knowledge workers, have decided they don’t want to work for their recent employers anymore. In fact, of those who are still employed, anywhere from one third to 95% of them are considering quitting their jobs. 

Both groups are reluctant to return to work for a variety of reasons, including return-to-work requirements, their ability to find higher-paying jobs, and, for workers like nurses, because their previous job was just too exhausting. Return-to-work requirements are problematic not necessarily because workers dislike working in offices, but because of the commute. A large number of people have left urban areas during the pandemic because they could work from home and didn’t need to commute, or because they want somewhere quieter and less likely to infect them with COVID-19. In addition to opting for higher-paying jobs and the ability to work from home, workers are also likely to look for benefits like educational assistance, unlimited vacation, a home office stipend, and a signing bonus. 

As a result, there are a very large number of unfilled jobs right now — some saying it’s the craziest job market since the 1990s tech boom — and employers are having a hard time hiring for both the positions they laid off during the pandemic as well as for new positions. 

1. The first reason employers are struggling to fill open positions is that they don’t have a clear idea of what they’re looking for. For example, a few years ago a recruiter we were interviewing told my team his tech company clients were asking him to “just hire good engineers,” and more recently a pizza chain in Alabama stated they will “literally hire anyone.” 
2. The second reason they are struggling is that employers don’t know where to find candidates. Many job boards exist, but it’s not clear which ones to use. Furthermore, many unemployed people are not actively looking for jobs, and even if they are, they’re most likely using their friends, family, coworkers, and other connections. As a result, some companies are offering up to $50k referral bonuses. 
3. Finally, the third reason is that employers don’t know what the candidates are looking for. While there are stories, like those mentioned above, that have workers demanding to work from home, seeking higher pay, and benefits, it’s not clear to employers which of these workers would demand, versus which might be added bonuses that could help them differentiate themselves. 

Technical Requirements

Because employers don’t have a clear idea of what they’re looking for, they cannot just create job descriptions like they have in the past. First of all, the pandemic has taught workers that they can demand more than they previously realized, such as the ability to work from home or higher pay. Therefore, well-known job listing best practices may no longer necessarily apply. Also, while looking at other examples online is tempting, those would be from other companies that are possibly in different markets. Therefore, a solution is needed to aggregate recent data with established wisdom to create and edit job listings. 

Given that employers also don’t know where to find candidates, posting to all available job boards online isn’t sufficient anymore. It can be a lot of work to post to all of the boards, and expensive to hire someone to manage the process. Instead, employers need to find candidates on other websites that they visit. However, it’s unclear what sites are best for a given job. Therefore, a solution is needed to post relevant job listings across the web. 

Finally, even with a tool to do that, employers don’t know what the candidates are looking for. Rather than hoping for the best with traditional job listings, they could ask people directly or use surveys to see what they’re looking for, but that is expensive and time-consuming. Furthermore, such knowledge would not stay up-to-date as the job market changes, like it didn’t this time around. Employers could also read recent articles and other sources online to learn how the job market is changing, but, like all information on the internet, it’s unclear what take seriously and what to ignore. Finally, such approaches don’t capture what companies candidates end up choose over others, and why. Instead, a solution is needed to track the performance of job listings with actionable metrics.

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I am working on addressing this problem right now. For more information, feel free to email me at bob@datagotchi.net.