The index is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed workers in each metro area by the number of openings in an index of online jobs. The job lists are compiled from thousands of employer-created portals, recruiter Web sites and Internet job boards, according to Brendan Cruickshank with the job search engine Juju.com.
“So we pull jobs from all jobs boards, employers, newspapers, blogs—anywhere out there on the Internet that has a job, we’re going to pull it into one place. A job seeker can go to one site and be able to search, instead of having to go to all these sites individually, and we’ve been around since 2006. Basically what we did is take a look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment numbers for the top 50 cities in the country by population, and then we compare that to our job index to come up with the number of unemployed individuals for each market.”
Cruickshank says the index reflects factors such as factory closings or when certain industries are adversely affected by the economy.
“Cities that have a lot of education, health care and government jobs tend to do quite well. So if you look at cities like Washington, D.C., Boston, Baltimore, they tend to do quite well because these industries have stabilized a lot more in the current economic climate. And then cities that had a lot more in terms of manufacturing, construction, hospitality and tourism, like Miami, Las Vegas, Detroit, are near the bottom. So it definitely correlates to these industries, you know, that do better in a recession.”
Houston placed 24th on the list, with 5.96 unemployed individuals per advertised job.
Subscribe to Today in Houston
Fill out the form below to subscribe our new daily editorial newsletter from the HPM Newsroom.