by Ton Sluiter, Product Manager, Textkernel
Every day more than a million new vacancies from thousands of different websites in 10 different countries are added to Jobfeed. These vacancies are parsed into more than 50 variables such as job title, location, organization, contract type, job description, employer description etc.
This information is further enriched due to the use of Textkernel’s AI models with more than 30 variables such as normalized profession, type of industry, organization size, normalized skills, region etc.
All this information is available in Jobfeed, and through the portal interface, users can easily analyze key market trends. However, as a portal user, your ability to do detailed research is limited because much of the data is aggregated for ease of use.
This is where the Jobfeed API comes in
By using Jobfeed’s API you can tap into an infinite source of data with all enriched individual vacancies and job postings. A true “candy store” for every business analyst or data scientist in the staffing industry, or labor market researchers at government agencies, research institutes or universities.
In my previous job at USG People, the second largest staffing agency in the Netherlands, we have been using Jobfeed’s API for several studies. Here are a few examples.
Competitor Analysis
Sales and Account Management wanted to have an overview of the accounts of the main competitors. And, as more and more staffing agencies publish the name of their clients in the vacancies, this information is also available in Jobfeed.
By extracting the data from the Jobfeed API we could analyze our position per account compared, as well as per function against our competitors. Account Management used this information in meet-ups with clients, and the insights were also helpful in the tender process at prospects.
Terms of employment
As part of a project to improve the content of vacancies we wanted to research the development of some typical conditions and benefits like education/upskilling offers and pension schemes. In the Jobfeed API the full text of a vacancy is available as well as sections like the job description and the conditions and benefits of a job. Thus we were able to extract this information combined with profession, publication date, organization, industry and more to do deeper analysis.
With all this data we were able to study the evolution over time of specific conditions and benefits. The insights provided us with very useful information on what to put in a specific vacancy to attract applicants.
Labor market insights
Customers asked our consultants to give them insights into the local labor market conditions. By combining internal data such as applications per vacancy, number of placements and salary levels, external data from available sources on outflow from education, unemployment per occupations, and data from the Jobfeed API on development of vacancies, we were able to create an internal dashboard that easily surfaced insights on the difficulty to attract applicants per function.
When we look at our internal data we see labor market development mixed with the choices that our organization made. To perform a benchmark and add contextual information you require data that looks further. Jobfeed does exactly that and the API enables the combination of both the internal and external view. An interesting base for data analysts to explore further.
– Riecold Veldkamp, Lead Solution Engineer IT Strategy & Digital Office, USG People
Matching on external vacancies for lead generation
As in many staffing agencies, USG People receives more applicants than can be placed. Most of these applicants have very useful skills and educations, and because they applied we could suggest other jobs that matched their candidate profile. In the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) we were able to match high quality applicants to external vacancies of direct employers that were still open after much time, indicating the role was difficult to fill and that the prospect would likely be interested in your matching candidates.
Because the Jobfeed API also provides the contact details such as the name, phone number and email address it is easy to reach out and present a perfect match. A win-win-win for the applicant, employer and staffing agency.
For us, the Jobfeed API was a holistic tool that delivered value in many different areas. From providing labor market insight that allowed our consultant to deliver strategic value to customers, through to lead generation that allowed us to place more of our sourced candidates.
For further information on how the Jobfeed API can deliver value for your business you can get in touch with our sales team.
