What are locations?
Locations are geographic entities around the world. We provide data for a number of different location types, including countries, states (or local equivalent), and metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). When available, we also provide data for counties and cities.
What can I use this data for?
Location data can help you understand where competitors are hiring for a given role, or which locations around the world have the talent you’re looking for.
Acquire: Where do you get the data for locations?
To allow for cross-country comparisons, we maintain a location taxonomy that consists of country, state (or local equivalent), MSA, and (when available) county and city. When processing demand and supply data, we map locations from job postings and government reports to this taxonomy.
Organize: How do you prepare this data for analysis?
To provide demand data for different locations, we rely on job postings. Learn more about demand. Most postings on job boards include a labeled field identifying the location. We extract this information and match the location in each posting to the appropriate location in our taxonomy using a proprietary algorithm.
To provide supply data for different locations, we rely on censuses and labor market reports from government entities. Learn more about supply. When processing government data, we match the location from the report to the appropriate location in our taxonomy.
Analyze: How do you calculate location data?
After identifying the location associated with a job posting or government data, we can provide data on job postings or employed people associated with that location.
Deliver: How do you represent location data?
We typically represent location data either as a count or a percentage of job postings or candidates that match your search criteria and that are associated with a particular location.
More about locations:
What location types do you support?
Our location taxonomy includes country, state, MSA, and (when available) city and county. We are able to provide demand data for all location types: country, state, MSA, county, city (or local equivalents of these categories). We are able to provide supply data for country, state, and MSA. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to provide supply data at the county and city level.
How do you define an MSA outside of the United States?
A metropolitan statistical area is a dense urban agglomeration plus its surrounding commuting sectors grouped under the same influence zone in terms of labor market flows. In the United States, these are defined by the Office of Management and Budget. To define an MSA outside of the United States, we select the locally-defined statistical area which best fits the definition of an MSA. If none of the locally-defined statistical areas match, we build a custom geographical area that we feel best fits the definition of an MSA. If you have questions about the locations included in a specific MSA, please contact our Support team.