2023 E-Insights Report

Signals on Job Structure from Google Trends

What is the job market scenario in the Tampa Bay region? What kinds of jobs are being sought after in the region? How is the economy of the Tampa Bay area performing? Some of these questions may be answered in part from interesting real-time data on searches that people conduct on Google. Here, scholars used real-time data from Google Trends to gauge various aspects related to job market structure. Google Trends is an online tool that analyzes the popularity of search queries on Google across multiple regions. Google Trends is helpful in tracking the movements in the markets or economy on real-time basis. The tool creates a search index for each search unit based on its popularity relative to all other search terms queried in a region. The index value ranges between 0 and 100. The higher the index value for a search query, the higher the popularity for that search query.

The index data was collected for 20 MSAs between September 2022 and December 2022. The index values for the Tampa Bay MSA are for the Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater MSA alone and do not include the three other MSAs considered part of the Tampa Bay region in this report.

  1. Search for remote jobs
    This is the proxy for the level of search for remote jobs in the region.
    “work from home jobs” + “remote jobs” + “best work from home jobs” + “highest paying remote jobs” + ”remote jobs for women.”

  2. Search for part-time jobs
    This is the proxy for the level of search for part-time jobs in the region.
    “best part-time jobs” + “part time jobs near me” + ”local part time jobs” + ”part time jobs for women” + ”highest paying part time jobs.”

  3. Local commerce
    This is the proxy for the regular commercial activity of a region.
    “concert tickets” + “events near me” + “malls near me” + “movies near me” + “opera tickets.”

  4. Online Retail
    This is the proxy for the e-commerce activity in a region.
    “Amazon grocery” + “canned food” + “food delivery” + “grocery delivery” + “online grocery.”

  5. Innovation activity
    This is the proxy for innovation activity in the region.
    “research jobs” + “USPTO” + “marketing ideas” + “new product development” + ” process improvement.”

  6. Entrepreneurship activity
    This is the proxy for entrepreneurship activity in the region.
    “how to start business” + “business loans” + “office space for rent” + “ideas for business” + “business registration.”

  7. Business traveler persona
    This is the proxy for the region’s activity related to business travel.
    “accommodation” + “travel tickets” + “rental cars” + “conferences.”

  8. Zoom queries
    This is the proxy for remote work activity in the region
    “install Zoom” + “Zoom not working” + “change Zoom background” + “Zoom support” + ”Zoom meeting setup.”