Overview
The Hiring Difficulty score helps users quickly compare how challenging it is to hire specific talent across different sets of regions. It's currently available in the US and Global Talent Analyst, specifically in the reports Geography Explorer and Global Dashboard. These reports are viewable at the Country or Metropolitan levels.
The score ranges from 0 (least difficult) to 5 (most difficult) and is meant to help users quickly compare and highlight regions where the talent is relatively abundant, less sought after, and more affordable—a combination that typically signals lower hiring difficulty.
Nowhere is “easy” to hire talent (learn about it in the Lightcast Demographic Drought reports), but the Hiring Difficulty score is designed to help you quickly answer the question “Where is it easier or harder to hire talent?” at a high level to identify regions to dive deeper into for further research.
Methodology
The score is calculated using a weighted combination of three labor market factors.
Supply (primary factor). This metric adapts based on your search parameters and whether you are in the US or Global. In the US, it's defined by government-reported workforce counts. In Global, it's defined using Lightcast’s modeled workforce estimates (see here for more detail). In both, if your search includes filters where workforce data isn’t available (e.g., you include a skill filter), the score uses the number of relevant online profiles as a second-best proxy.
Demand (secondary factor). This metric is measured by the number of unique job postings over the past 12 months that match the rest of your search parameters (e.g., region, occupation, skill, etc.). It's the most straightforward of the three factors and is consistent whether in the US or Global.
Compensation (tertiary factor). Like Supply, this metric also adapts based on your search parameters and whether you are in the US or Global. In the US, it's defined by either the government-reported median salary or Lightcast’s compensation model (see here for more details), depending on whether or not a skill or keyword has been inputted. In Global, it uses advertised salaries from job postings. If fewer than 50 postings include salary data, or if the region has N/A due to unknown salary, the factor is neutralized to prevent skewing the score one way or another due to insignificant data.
Relative Quality
The Hiring Difficulty is not meant to be interpreted as an absolute measure of difficulty but rather as a relative indicator when comparing regions side-by-side in a specific hiring scenario. It is a formula to help quickly compare and highlight regions where talent is relatively abundant, less sought after, and more affordable—a combination that typically signals lower hiring difficulty.
What does this mean in practice? Because the score is relative and not absolute, the score for a region will change depending on the other regions in the table. Hiring Registered Nurses in Greenfield, MA might have a score of 3.33 when compared to the other MSAs in Massachusetts, but when compared to other MSAs in the New England area, the score of Greenfield, MA will change to 4.74.
Q&A
Q: “Why is it saying x region is easy to hire? I know with certainty that it's very difficult.”
A: The Hiring Difficulty is not meant to be interpreted as an absolute measure of difficulty but rather as a relative indicator when comparing regions side-by-side in a specific hiring scenario. It is a formula to help quickly compare and highlight regions where talent is relatively abundant, less sought after, and more affordable—a combination that typically signals lower hiring difficulty. We know that no where is easy to hire talent. The score is designed to help you quickly answer the question: “Where is it easier or harder to hire talent?”
Q: “Why am I only seeing 0.00 when I search for an MSA?”
A: When you search for a single MSA, that region isn’t being compared to any other regions. For example, Radiologists in San Francisco is showing 0 because it’s not being compared to any other regions. If you search at a higher level however, say all of California, then you’re comparing San Francisco against all the other MSAs in the state. You’ll notice that it has a different score. The Hiring Difficulty score is relative based on the regions being compared. It’s not meant to be interpreted as an absolute measure of difficulty but rather as a directional indicator when comparing regions side-by-side in a specific hiring scenario.
Q: “Why do some regions have the same score? And why am I not seeing 0-5?"
A: Even though the Hiring Difficulty is made to compare regions, sometimes regions will have the same Hiring Difficulty score or not display the entire 0-5 ranking. This is expected behavior based on how the score is calculated and typically happens when there are very low values or the same value in one or more factors across regions.