Simply Hired Blog

Q1 2009 Job Trends Released

In Q1 of 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed an increase in the unemployment rate from 8.1 to 8.5 percent between January 1 and March 31, meaning more people vying for a limited number of positions. Here at Simply Hired, we wanted to investigate job trends by geography, industry and demand among job seekers to see what job seekers were looking for and where.

The Q1 job trends report found:

• Job searches are up in Chicago (job seekers up 15 percent), San Francisco and the Bay Area (job seekers up 15 percent), Boston (job seekers up 17 percent), Milwaukee and Washington D.C.
• The most competitive job listings are for positions related to project management, graphic design, financial analysis, staff accounting and business analysis.
• The least competitive jobs are for sales associates, sales representatives and dental assistants.

In addition, the top active job listings included keywords such as "part-time," "sales," "accounting" or "finance." Available jobs in Washington D.C. were up by 14 percent, with a smaller, yet still positive five percent upswing of available jobs in Boston and San Diego.

You can read more about the Simply Hired trends report in the press release.

SilkRoad Partners with Simply Hired

With the new partnership between SilkRoad and Simply Hired, OpenHire clients can now reach even more candidates. Jobs that are indexed through Simply Hired through OpenHire™, SilkRoad’s recruiting management solution will be distributed throughout Simply Hired’s network of over 5,000 network sites, including social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo. SilkRoad customers will be able to reach active and passive job seekers in new and innovated ways.

OpenHire clients will also benefit from the automated tracking integration with Simply Hired, allowing recruiters to more accurately measure and track the ROI of their online recruiting. In addition, OpenHire clients can take advantage of Simply Hired’s Job Rank™ reports, which detail information about how well the job listings from their company are performing on the Simply Hired network, including the number of clicks for their listings, the positing of the listings within the search results, similar searches, and the names of competitors with similar titles of job listings.

View the press release for more information.

Celebrate Earth Day with Simply Hired

Happy Earth Day everyone! People have been talking lately about ways they can “green” up their lives and make every day their own personal Earth Day. If you haven’t already checked it out, Simply Hired worked with Care2 to bring you the Eco-friendly job search filter that returns jobs from green employers such as Whole Foods Market, HP, and Johnson Controls.

You can find the Eco-friendly search filter at http://www.simplyhired.com/eco, on the special searches page and in the special searches filter on the left side of every search results page.

So get out there and make some green working at green companies!

Time for a little spring cleaning!

**Updated 1/19/10 - "Flag a job" feature renamed to "Report", added new functionality**

Don’t like spam? Neither do we. That’s why Simply Hired is rolling out a new feature that will clean out those pesky job listings that are either faulty or fraudulent. The new “Report” feature lets job seekers report jobs that need to be removed from the results, for one of the following reasons:

1. scam/spam
2. expired
3. duplicate
4. inaccurate

Here’s how it works. Below each job listing on the search results page, you will notice a “Report" link.

By clicking the report link, you will be able to specify the problem you found with the job.

After clicking the specific problem, the job listing will be collapsed in the results and will be labeled as “Reported.” Your feedback will be sent to the Simply Hired data quality team and we will investigate repeatedly reported jobs for removal from our site.

For more ways to avoid spam job listings, check out the Simply Hired Job Scam Tip Sheet.

2009 Simply Hired Nugget Bowl

This week marked the first (and very possibly the only) Simply Hired Nugget Bowl! What is a Nugget Bowl, you ask? Just over 25 years ago, small pieces of chicken that were breaded and fried were introduced to the McDonald’s menu and called Chicken McNuggets. But today, Chicken McNuggets have become one of the world’s best foods for an eating contest because of their fun size and deliciousness (now with real white meat!). And that’s where it all begins.

Nine very competitive and hungry Simply Hired employees marched over to the nearest McDonald’s on their lunch break to stock up on however many nuggets and dipping sauces they thought they could consume. Some of the competitors had the goal to eat a certain number of nuggets while others just wanted to eat more than everyone else. The group brought back over 250 Chicken McNuggets.

Back at the office, they laid their many boxes in front of them on a long table. Each competitor faced at least 20 pieces of Chicken McNuggets. Before the contest began, they drew in one last breath. And with the ring of a cowbell, they were off.

It was interesting to note the different eating styles. Some ate as quickly as possible to stuff themselves before realizing they were full. Others used the “turtle and the hare” strategy and ate at a more relaxed pace. Some alternated dipping the McNuggets in different flavors to keep their taste buds guessing and a few went without sauce all together.

There seemed to be four phases of the eating challenge:  

1. Yum stage (nuggets 1-5): “I love Chicken McNuggets!”
2. Oh, No stage (nuggets 6-10): “This is a lot of nuggets. I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish all 20, or 30… or even 40.”
3. Mindless, Tasteless Eating stage (nuggets 11-?): Chomp… chomp… chomp…
4. Second Wind stage (last 3 nuggets or so): “Woo! Bring it on! Where are the fries?”

Slow and steady won the race in this competition. Our winner ate 40 chicken nuggets in our contest, all while he leafed through the day’s newspaper. Congratulations to our new Nugget Master!