The employability index: what it is and how we calculate it
What is employability
Employability is a person's ability to know how to actively seek, find and keep a job. The term thus represents the ability to obtain employment (which can be either the first job ever or a new job), including making transitions from an unemployed condition or previous work experience. The word "employability" was first used in 1997, in its English translation "employability," as part of the European Employment Strategy (EES), which the countries of the European Union set out to create more, and qualitatively better, jobs.
What is the employability index and how we calculate it
The employability index measures a person's ability to make himself or herself employable. PHYD, through an artificial intelligence solution based on proprietary self-learning and data mining algorithms, is able to calculate the employability index.
In more detail, the employability index is the result of integrating two distinct components that in turn are the result of different factors.
The two components are:
Market demand: is determined by the total number of vacancies offered at the European level for a specific occupation, the quality of their contractual profile, and the frequency with which demand for that specific occupation persists over time.
Role coverage: is determined by the individual's professional experience, educational qualifications, specific skills (hard skills), soft skills, and his/her computer and communication skills.
PHYD analyzes all this data in real time and returns each user's employability index. This is unique strategic information that provides insight into what the individual's actual ability to make themselves employable is in relation to the labor market.
What data we use
The set of data collected and processed by PHYD comes from these databases:
ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications, Occupations)
PHYD is based on the taxonomy of occupations, qualifications and skills relevant in today's labor market developed by the European Commission. This classification is called ESCO, "European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations," and was the result of joint work between the European Commission, European and national actors, on behalf of the Ministry of Labor. ESCO's goal is to promote development and support job growth by facilitating the matching of skills, qualifications and job profiles, as well as to increase the expendability of citizens' skills in the European labor market and encourage processes to support employability and growth at a time of severe economic hardship.
The version used v.1.0.2 is an update made in October 2017 of the previously published first version. The publication was followed by a conference to confirm and show the validity of the information in the database. The ESCO database is a Linked Open Data in that the data is available, downloadable and reusable, as indicated on the site:
"In accordance with Commission Decision of December 12, 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents (2011/833/EU), the ESCO classification may be downloaded, used, reproduced and reused for any purpose and by any interested party, free of charge. It may be linked to existing taxonomies or classifications for integration or mapping purposes."
ESCO provides a taxonomy of 2,942 jobs, grouped into a 6-level hierarchy, a list of 13,485 skills, and a relationship matrix that associates each job with the skills needed to perform it. In PHYD, data from the ESCO version have been reworked and modified.
O*NET
O*net Phyd has integrated into its platform the database that maps the American labor marketo. This is about 1,000 occupations. Developed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Labor (the U.S. government department in charge of labor policies), O*NET is the central information tool used by the U.S. employers to profile employees and contractors to whom they propose employment. O*NET is a framework that identifies labor information and integrates it into a theoretically and empirically sound system. The model also allows employment information to be applied to all production sectors.
JOBPRICING
The Observatory JobPricing aims to be a point of reference for the study of the labor market and pay dynamics: its publications now make it one of the most accredited data sources in Italy. JobPricing provides its clients with the most extensive and up-to-date database on Italian wages.
ALMALAUREA
is a consortium of 78 Italian universities. It is recognized as a Research Organization and annually promotes surveys and analysis on the functioning of the national university system.
EXCELSIOR
promoted by the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce Industry, Handicrafts and Agriculture, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, the National Agency for Active Employment Policies (ANPAL) and the European Union, Excelsior is the most comprehensive information system that collects and processes the outlook for labor demand and the professional, training and skills needs expressed by Italian companies.
TEXTKERNEL Jobfeed
is software that scans thousands of digital portals offering job opportunities in more than 10 countries and allows it to collect and process the information contained in individual ads. This information includes the type of employment contract offered, the geographical location of the opportunity, and the main skills required.
