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« 3rd Best Site for Active Job Search – SimplyHired | Main | The Best Site for Active Job Search – Indeed »

February 16, 2006

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Ricky

hey Bob, i was wondering if you could explain what you mean by coverage. JobCentral limits searches to 500 jobs so i was wondering how you are getting your data/results for them.

Bob Wilson


In the post 10th Best Site for Active Job Search – Monster (http://rmwilsonconsulting.typepad.com/job_search_engine_guide/2006/02/10th_best_site_.html I explained the methodology – here’s an excerpt (you can read the rational in the full post):

“Each of the 10 job sites in this comparison contributed 5 job ads from the Eugene area to a test sample of 50 jobs; no duplicate ads were allowed in the sample. Each job site was then searched for all 50 jobs, and a ‘coverage score’ was calculated. The minimum possible coverage score is 10% since each site contributed 5 of the 50 job ads in the test sample.”

So ‘coverage’ in this case is the percentage of the 50 jobs in the sample that can be found on each job site. A site covering 100% of the market would, by definition, include all 50 jobs. By selecting a fairly small sample, and by controlling the geography, the 500-job limit never comes into play on JobCentral. And honestly, the number of people who would scan through more than 500 jobs is incredibly small – users are much more likely to add keywords or reduce their geography.

If you are wondering why my post in December said SimplyHired Finds the Most Jobs (http://rmwilsonconsulting.typepad.com/job_search_engine_guide/2005/12/simplyhired_fin.html and now I’m saying JobCentral had higher coverage, here’s an excerpt from that post:

“In a test of seven job search engines, for five job titles (white-, gray-, and blue-collar), throughout five states (east, central and west), the vertical job search engine SimplyHired returned the most jobs meeting the test criteria. Keep in mind that having the most jobs is not the same as having the best jobs – that’s a separate question, perhaps for a future study. Also keep in mind that some sites do a better job of eliminating duplicate job listings. For the purpose of this study, all displayed jobs were counted.”

In the most recent analysis no duplicates or closed job ads were allowed; so quality played a more important role.

Bob

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