This past year, we saw some big shifts in the labor market. From a record-low unemployment rate to wage stagnation to the expansion of Amazon, we’re in the midst of some major changes that will fundamentally change how people work and how companies hire.
We’ve previously shared data from Talroo Insights™, our award-winning business intelligence tool, that showed what positions job seekers were looking for, and who employers were looking to hire, nationwide. Talroo has access to billions of job seeker queries each month, plus millions of live jobs. This means we have a treasure trove of data to see how the economy, time of year, and labor market news is affecting what job seekers are looking for – and why. Stay tuned for more cities in 2020.
Let’s look into the local trends of our newsy neighbor to the northeast: Washington, DC! The word “Washington” evokes images of politicians on Capitol Hill and lobbyists in slick offices, but the nation’s 6th largest metro area is a diverse city that provides work in all sectors – from government, to retail, to food service, to manufacturing, and more. The DC metro area accounts for over 37 million monthly job searches on Talroo’s network. The top 10 most popular job seeker searches in DC were mostly similar to the US as a whole.
The top 10 searched industries in the washington d.c. metro
DC follows national trends to a point, but it’s obvious that some of the popular categories are there to support a large city of white-collar industry. Food service, admin, caregiving, etc. are more popular in DC that other large metro areas we’ve looked at.
Most popular job seeker searches
Job seekers are looking for those high-volume major categories like warehouse, admin, customer service, and security, as well as a few companies by name like Walmart and Amazon. The Washington-area suburb of Crystal City is the future home of Amazon’s second headquarters, which will impact the economy in myriad ways – and has already started to.
The big players in warehouse and retail need to fill a large volume of open positions. U.S Customs and Border Protection is definitely an “only in DC” kind of thing… under the Department of Homeland Security, they employ more than 60,000 people.
Where are job seekers coming from?
The DC metro area is huge. Commuters come from as far as Baltimore, and sometimes even further. The high cost of living in DC proper makes the suburbs attractive – though they are far from a bargain. Washingtonian workers contend with some of the longest commutes in the country. Why do they put up with it? Great job opportunities. Talroo Insights™ can help you identify where job seekers are coming from, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly. Offer a shorter commute, and a beleaguered Washingtonian might enthusiastically take you up on it!
Want a deeper dive into DC labor market trends, or any other geographic area? Keep up with Talroo’s Insights™ dashboard. Functionality includes job campaign performance metrics, bidding intelligence, talent supply data, and more. These numbers can tell customers how people are finding their jobs, where the talent is living and searching, and what companies are competing for the same talent – helping the customer spend budget more efficiently and stand out in a tight labor market.
Reach out using the button above to learn more about Insights™ or our other products. And stay tuned to the Talroo blog for more trends and stats in the new year!
