Lightcast uses "dataruns" to release new countries to our global dataset and to update all the current government sourced data. While online profile and job posting data are updated on consistent cycles, government sourced data deals with different cycles depending on the country and is therefore less consistent. Lightcast always collects and releases the latest available data from government sources and uses it to build out regional administrative areas and granular workforce estimates.
This page contains the latest release notes for each of Lightcast’s global dataruns, also referred to as "Lingua Franca" dataruns. The release notes outline any new country additions, methodology changes, or fixes included with each datarun. You can expect seven different global dataruns in a year.
For a full breakdown of all 37 countries that available in the latest Global datarun, see the Available Countries in Global article.
Current Release Notes
This section lists the changes and updates introduced in the latest datarun.
2024.4
Released: Oct 11, 2024
Addition of Indonesia
Indonesia has been added to our repository of countries available in the Global dataset of Talent Analyst. The total number of supported countries is now 37!
This includes data for job postings and online profiles (it excludes workforce estimates due to insufficient data availability).
Final Release: Sept 26, 2024
Beta Release: Sept 23, 2024
Updated Methodology to the Workforce Estimation Model (WEMo)
Lightcast has updated the WEMo methodology to provide customers with more accurate workforce estimates and unlock over 400 new LOT Specialised Occupations.
To learn about the details of the current methodology, see our article for Workforce Estimation Model (WEMo). To summarize the changes from the previous methodology, Lightcast has...
Switched to job postings as the source for all ratios instead of online profiles
The model now uses job postings as the primary dataset to model the distribution of granular LOT Specialized Occupations across broader 4-digit ISCO occupations.
For every supported country or metropolitan area, the model leverages every job posting from the last three years for that region. This includes all postings that were tagged with occupational information, regardless of the language of the original posting.
When it comes to building a detailed distribution of the labor market in a region, postings data provides several significant advantages over profiles data.
The model can truly leverage the granularity of Specialized Occupations because postings data enables a precise distribution of the workforce into nuanced categories, with greater confidence.
Postings data opens up the ability to more accurately estimate the size of the workforce in blue collar occupations.
Reducing dependency on comparable regions
The model defaults towards using postings data that is local to each region to estimate the 4-digit ISCO to LOT Specialized Occupation distribution. When coupled with LMI data that is also derived from local government reporting of the size of the workforce, the model now represents a more precise view into the composition of the labor force in each region.
Previously, only the US, UK, and Canada had their ratios modeled using data from the same country. In this new version, every single supported country has over 85% of its ratios modeled using data from the same country. Even when data in a region doesn’t meet the quality thresholds, the model typically uses data from other regions in the same country as a proxy and is far less likely to fall back to using US data.
Supporting more occupations
The model now produces workforce estimates for almost all LOT Specialized Occupations, with significant improvements in coverage for occupations in the Manufacturing and Production, Sales, Transportation, and Hospitality career areas.
At the national level, in every supported country, the Specialized Occupations available in the model cover over 95% of the total workforce reported in the government data. Similarly, the Specialized Occupations available cover over 90% of the total workforce in every metropolitan area, with coverage in most regions being well over 98%.
Updating to the latest available government workforce data
All estimates in the model now represent the size of the workforce in the year 2023, as opposed to the 2022 estimates that were available in all previous versions. This combines the latest available government data with projections as necessary, to bring 2023 support for all countries.
In addition, the model will continue to use the latest available postings data from the past three years, and update over time, with postings through the most recent complete month incorporated into the model.
Addition of Hungary
Hungary has been added to our repository of countries available in the Global dataset. Data is available by job postings, online profiles, and workforce estimates. The total number of supported countries is now 36!
Older Release Notes
This section contains release notes for past dataruns.
2024.3
2024.3
Released: August 14, 2024
Addition of Croatia
Croatia has been added to our repository of countries available in the Global dataset of Talent Analyst. The total number of supported countries is now 35!
This includes all three data for job postings, online profiles, and workforce estimates.
Released: July 22, 2024
Addition of Malaysia & Puerto Rico
Malaysia and Puerto Rico have been added to our repository of countries available in the Global dataset of Talent Analyst. The total number of supported countries is now 34!
(Note that we're only launching the postings and profiles data for these countries.)
Beta Released: June 21, 2024
Final Released: July 1, 2024
Addition of New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, UAE
New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, and the UAE have been added to our repository of countries available in the Global dataset of Talent Analyst. The total number of supported countries is now 32!
Note that Chile, Colombia, and the UAE are only available by the postings and profiles datasets, while New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore are available by postings, profiles, and workforce estimate datasets.
2024.2
2024.2
Released: May 22, 2024
Addition of Hong Kong & Argentina
Hong Kong and Argentina have been added to our repository of countries available in the Global dataset of Talent Analyst. The total number of supported countries is now 26!
Note that we're only launching the postings and profiles data for these two countries. Total workforce estimates are not planned for 2024 due to the lack of sufficient data to make reliable estimates with our current methods in these countries.
Released: April 11, 2024
Addition of South Africa, and updated workforce data in India
South Africa has been added to our repository of countries available in the Global dataset. The total number of countries for which Lightcast offers workforce estimates, job posting insights, and online profiles insights is now 24!
India numbers reflect a benching of the latest round of data to the latest release of QLFS data (Quarterly Labour Force Survey) at the national / 3-digit occupation level. Their latest releases are on the basis of NCO 2015, which aligns with ISCO-08, rather than NCO 2004 (ISCO 88 basis). The new data released has dramatically higher level of professionals in information and computer technology across the board, which is now reflected in our data.
2024.1
2024.1
Released: February 26, 2024
Addition of Romania, Sweden, and Denmark
Romania, Sweden, and Denmark are 3 new countries and languages that have been added to the Global dataset. The total number of countries for which Lightcast offers workforce estimates, job posting insights, and online profiles insights is now 23!
2024.0
2024.0
Released: February 13, 2024
Launch of a new Global data within Talent Analyst supporting 20 countries!
Now as its own regional data selector instead of a standalone product, Global now has four reports where users can search for labor market data with 3x the granularity using our proprietary Lightcast Occupation Taxonomy (LOT). This taxonomy has over 1,900+ categories of labor, as opposed to the 33 categories that were previously available in Global. Beginning with 20 countries to start and 30 more countries to be added throughout the year, Lightcast Talent Analyst now empowers global customers with granular workforce data.
Austria
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Switzerland
Czechia
Germany
Spain
France
United Kingdom
Ireland
India
Italy
Luxembourg
Mexico
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
United States
Read more about our Global launch on our Press Release article found here.