Q: What are the DHI Hiring Indicators?
A: The DHI Hiring Indicators are a set of new metrics for U.S. labor market conditions, accompanied by a monthly report. The new metrics include statistics for the DHI-DFH Vacancy Duration Measure and the DHI-DFH Recruiting Intensity Index at the national, regional and industry levels and by establishment size class.
Q: What does the vacancy duration measure tell us?
A: It tells us the average number of working days taken to fill open job positions. It supplements other measures often used to assess the tightness of labor market conditions such as the ratio of vacant jobs to unemployed workers.
Q: What economic factors affect the average vacancy duration?
A: Vacancy durations depend on the relative numbers of job seekers and job vacancies, the recruiting and search methods available to employers and job seekers, employer recruiting intensity per vacancy, the search intensity of job seekers, and the degree to which the requirements of jobs on offer match the skills, locations and preferences of job seekers. Other things equal, a larger ratio of job vacancies to job seekers yields longer vacancy durations.
Q:What does the recruiting intensity index tell us?
A: It summarizes, in a quantitative manner, the intensity of employer efforts to recruit for, and fill, their open job positions. The index complements the monthly job openings rate reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics based on the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
Q: How do employers affect their recruiting intensity?
Employers with open job positions take several actions and decisions that affect how quickly those positions are filled. Examples include the choice of recruiting methods, expenditures on help-wanted ads, how rapidly employers screen job applicants, their hiring standards, and the attractiveness of compensation packages they offer to prospective new hires.
Q: How are the vacancy duration measure and the recruiting intensity index constructed?
A: They are constructed using data from the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, following methods developed by Steven J. Davis, Jason Faberman and John Haltiwanger in “The Establishment-Level Behavior of Vacancies and Hiring,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2013.
Q: Why did you launch the DHI Hiring Indicators and monthly report?
A: The labor market is of keen interest to employers, human resource specialists, journalists, policymakers, researchers, and the population at large. The DHI Hiring Indicators provide new metrics to better track labor market conditions and better understand its performance.
Q: Why are the Indicators important to economists and those who follow labor markets?
A: The labor market outlook and the weak recovery of U.S. labor markets since the financial crisis of 2008-09 are of intense concern for economists, policymakers, and others who follow labor markets. The DHI Hiring Indicators provide new information to help assess labor market conditions and to improve understanding of labor market performance.
Q: Why are the indicators important to business leaders or those hiring professionals in the U.S.?
A: The recruiting environment for highly skilled professionals is competitive and companies are looking for ways to gain an edge. The indices signal where hiring activity is intense and where there is labor market slack.
Q: How is establishment size measured?
A: Establishment size is measured by the maximum employment at the establishment over the previous 12 months when it is selected for the JOLTS sample. Its size classification stays fixed for one year.
Q: How are working days defined?
A: Working days are defined as Monday through Saturday, excluding major holidays.
Q: Are there plans to expand the set of metrics included in the DHI Hiring Indicators?
A: Yes, we are working to develop new labor market indicators based on proprietary data of DHI brands.