Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL)®
A leading indicator to track labor market demand
See a clear picture of hiring demand and spot emerging trends
The Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) program, a collaboration between The Conference Board and Lightcast, measures the demand for labor in the United States using advertised online job vacancies.
HWOL is a proprietary dataset that powers many state job boards and is ideally suited for time series analysis. The data can serve as a leading indicator of the labor market and overall economic activity, and is available by geography, occupation, industry, and skills.
HWOL offers unique advantages over any other dataset.
Most accurate source for monthly job trends, backed by robust methodology.
Seasonally adjusted data makes it easy to filter out noise and spot meaningful trends
Data smoothing makes HWOL well-suited for reliable time series analysis
Ideal for economists, researchers, labor market analysts, and policy makers looking to better understand and communicate shifts in hiring demand.
The best hiring demand data...
Choose the dataset that's right for you.
Publication Data
Publication data shows the total job counts for seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted numbers. The Publication series is well suited for time series comparisons. Data is updated for a mid-monthly period once a month following the BLS reporting pattern. The Publication series data are locked data points (with potential annual revisions).
Index Data
Index data shows the relative shift in demand over time. This data set allows for high-level comparisons of labor market trends for your state or MSA to nationwide trends. This data is updated once a month (typically the second Wednesday of the month).
Live Data
Live data includes the HWOL set of live job postings that are updated daily. The data are curated to show a basket of employer-driven sites/sources, which removes as much spam and third-party data as possible.
...available when and where you need it
Choose the delivery method that's right for you.
Developer
HWOL data is available as an add-on in Developer, Lightcast's leading software platform for workforce analytics.
Monthly Data Files
Receive HWOL data via standard, mid-monthly data files.
Daily Job Feed
Access the HWOL job posting data feed, updated daily.
API or Snowflake
HWOL data is also available via API or the Snowflake marketplace.
About The Conference Board®
The Conference Board is the global, nonprofit think tank and business membership organization that delivers Trusted Insights for What's Ahead™. For over 100 years, their cutting-edge research, data, events and executive networks have helped the world's leading companies understand the present and shape the future.
