Job-search services like AfterCollege are racing to develop software that thinks and acts like a human recruiter, examining what kinds of workers and companies are drawn to each other so a computer can recommend vacancies to job seekers and candidates to hiring managers. With unemployment at 7.7 percent, more than 12 million Americans are looking for work while almost 4 million openings go unfilled, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Targeted matches may help the labor market work better, according to Alvin Roth, an economist at Stanford University near Palo Alto, California.

“There are all kinds of inefficiencies that these firms are trying to solve,” said Roth, who shared last year’s Nobel Prize in economics for his research in matching markets. “It might be hard for me to know about the job that’s available. There might be some skill you’re looking for but you might not find me.”

Mining Information

San Francisco-based AfterCollege and competitors such asCareerBuilder Inc. (CBDR) and Burning Glass are taking advantage of mountains of information they have stored over the years. Using resumes that job-seekers registered, the services extracted data like the degrees and certifications workers had acquired, their geographic locations, past job titles and previous employers and when and how long they held positions. From the job descriptions employers posted, the services also collected and organized information like job title, employer, education and experience requirements of positions as well as the benefits they list.

Engineers then looked for patterns. What kind of worker tends to view, apply to and eventually land what kind of jobs? What kind of employer typically targets what kind of candidate?

 

Please read more here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-03/algorithms-play-matchmaker-to-fight-7-7-u-s-unemployment-jobs.html

This just in from a London Business School colleague....

Interesting concept...

Here you go!

Here is the much-talked-about TED talk on inequality given by Nick Hanauer.

TED posted it to promote public discussion on an important issue.

For more background on this, see this blog post from TED Curator Chris Anderson: http://tedchris.posterous.com

For generations, the world’s less-developed countries have suffered so-called brain drain — the flight of many of their best and brightest to the West. That has not stopped, but now a reverse flow has begun, particularly to countries like China and India and, to a lesser extent, Brazil and Russia.

As the famous blues guitarist B.B. King sings: America "the thrill is gone...."

Some career advice for teens!

In an effort to reduce the unemployment rate among veterans and their spouses, job fairs sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are being held around the country in partnership with NBC News.

Even J.P. Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon is involved in these jobs fairs for veterans.

Spread the word and learn more here.

This just in from IvyExec...

Must be something in the air or maybe folks are trying to tell me something? Last few days I have been getting tons of emails about jobs, internships, etc.

Perhaps people think that just because I am in Miami Beach that I am not working hard enough. LOL!

Anyway, here is some info for those interested in working in Switzerland...