Ditch your Crystal Ball. Try Hiring Trends Instead - Page 2

So pack away your crystal ball, and check out Employment Trends http://www.simplyhired.com/a/jobtrends/home by Simply Hired. Employment Trends allows you to graph the % of total jobs on Simply Hired by keyword combination over the past 6 months. So compare “Left Hand Martian” (0%) to “Ruby Developer” (.09%, increased 68% over the past 18 months) and you’ll see that the market isn't so good for little green men.

As a job seeker, how can you use this? As you figure out your subject matter expertise (see http://recareered.blogspot.com/2008/03/which-subject-matter-am-i-expert-at.html ), Employment Trends can help you discover which skills are in greater demand, and which are growing or shrinking.

Also, you can quickly see what’s happening in the local market. Just search the name of your city or state to see how jobs are trending.

Best yet, combine the two, and you can really get some interesting trend information. You’ll see that in the last 18 months:

• .net jobs decreased by 24% nationally, while .net jobs in Chicago decreased by 16%
• Ruby jobs increased 75% nationally, while Ruby jobs in Chicago remained flat
  
  This comparison demonstrates that the current Chicago market for developers is rebounding more slowly than the coasts. Recessions typically hit the midwest last and the midwest is typically last to recover.
  
  How about this?
• Mac Jobs nationally increased by 24%, but increased in Chicago by 51%
• PC jobs nationally decreased by 22%, but increased in Chicago by 18%
  
  This comparison shows that nationally, while job listings are increasing, Mac and PC jobs are increasing at about the same rate. But in Chicago, Mac jobs are increasing much faster than PC jobs - this suggests that the advertising and design market may be rebounding faster than the overall market driven by marketing and advertising spend.

Hiring Trends is a great tool to play with, to help you figure out which Subject Matter Expertise will give you the best chance of finding your next career move. My Dad, a labor economist geek, could spend hours playing with this site as his new toy.

Pretty cool, huh? How will you use Hiring Trends to determine which subject matter expertise you should choose?

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