--- title: "What Is Job Market Research?" description: "What is job market research? Studying who is hiring, where, at what pay and for which skills, from official statistics, surveys and live postings." canonical: https://jobspipe.dev/blog/what-is-job-market-research date_published: 2026-09-09 date_modified: 2026-09-09 author: Dvir Atias --- # What Is Job Market Research? What is job market research? Studying who is hiring, where, at what pay and for which skills, from official statistics, surveys and live postings. What is job market research? It is the systematic study of demand for labour: which roles employers are hiring for, where, at what pay, with which skills, and how that changes. It draws on official statistics, surveys and, increasingly, job postings themselves. Job seekers use it to aim a search; employers and analysts use it to price roles and read the economy. ## How to do job market research in five steps 1. **Define the segment.** An occupation, a geography, a seniority band and an industry. Vague questions about the market return vague answers; a question about senior data engineers in Germany returns something you can act on. 2. **Start with official statistics for levels.** National statistics offices publish employment, unemployment, vacancies and pay by occupation and region. In the US that is the monthly jobs report, JOLTS for openings and the occupational wage survey; other economies publish equivalents. They are precise, slow and revised for months. 3. **Add surveys for the why.** Employer surveys explain hiring intent and pay bands; candidate surveys explain what people want. Both are self-selected, so treat them as colour rather than measurement. 4. **Use posting data for the now.** Live postings show which titles are advertised, which skills are named, what pay is stated and how long roles stay open. With JobsPipe that is one query: `job_title_or` for the role, `job_country_code_or` for the place, `job_seniority_or` for the level, `skills_or` for the requirements, `min_salary_usd` for stated pay and `posted_at_max_age_days` for freshness. 5. **Compare, then write it down.** Check postings against the official series and expect them to disagree at the edges. Keep the snapshot with its date, rerun it on the same filters next month, and let the [Labour Market Pulse](https://jobspipe.dev/pulse) supply the occupation and industry context around your segment. What is labor market research, as opposed to job market research? The same discipline with an economist’s emphasis: labour market research tends to mean the study of supply and demand for work across an economy, while job market research usually means a narrower read on openings for a role or a place. The definitions are in [what is the job market](https://jobspipe.dev/answers/what-is-the-job-market). Posting data adds three things the other sources lack: speed, since a posting appears the week intent forms; detail, since the text names skills and pay that no survey collects at scale; and closure, since a tracked posting tells you how long the role stayed open. It also has limits. Postings measure advertised demand, not employment; each board carries its own mix of employers; and stale listings inflate any count unless a ghost score screens them out. Good research states all three. Try it without a key ``` curl -d '{"limit":3}' https://api.jobspipe.dev/v1/sandbox/jobs/search ``` Only `/v1/sandbox/*` needs no key. ## Where JobsPipe fits JobsPipe is a jobs data API that collects live postings from LinkedIn, Indeed, Y Combinator, Workday, Greenhouse, Workable, SmartRecruiters, Ashby, Lever and Paylocity, returns them as one schema with closure tracking and a ghost score, and includes a free tier of 1,000 jobs to start. A segment read is one request against [jobspipe.dev](https://jobspipe.dev): ``` curl -X POST https://api.jobspipe.dev/v1/jobs/search \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $JOBSPIPE_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "job_title_or": ["data engineer"], "job_country_code_or": ["DE"], "job_seniority_or": ["senior"], "posted_at_max_age_days": 30, "max_ghost_score": 40, "limit": 100 }' ``` Occupation, industry, skill-trend and AI-exposure breakdowns are available on request - [book a demo](https://jobspipe.dev/book) and we'll walk you through the data. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is labor market research? The study of supply and demand for work across an economy or a segment of it: employment, unemployment, vacancies, pay and the skills employers ask for. Labour market research usually carries an economist's emphasis on the whole economy; job market research usually means a narrower read on openings for a role, a place or a company. ### What data does job market research use? Three kinds. Official statistics from national agencies give employment, vacancies and pay with precision and a lag. Surveys of employers and candidates explain intent and expectations but are self-selected. Job postings give live demand: advertised titles, named skills, stated pay, remote share and how long roles stay open, with each board carrying its own mix of employers. ### How is job market research different from market research? Market research studies customers and products; job market research studies employers and roles. The methods overlap, since both use surveys, official data and observed behaviour, but the unit is a job opening rather than a purchase, and the fastest available signal is a posting rather than a sale. Related ## Keep reading - [Guide · Sep 9, 2026Is the job market bad right now? What live job postings can and cannot tell you](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/is-the-job-market-bad-right-now) - [Guide · Jul 13, 2026Job market datasets: 7 real sources for job postings data (2026)](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/job-postings-dataset) - [Reference · Oct 11, 2026Job market report, October 2026: what millions of live job postings say about hiring right now](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/job-market-report) - [Guide · Sep 9, 2026Are Job Boards Effective?](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/are-job-boards-effective) - [Guide · Sep 9, 2026What Is a Job Description in HR?](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/what-is-a-job-description-in-hr) ## Further reading - [Labor market data: 9 sources and APIs compared (2026)](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/labor-market-data-sources) - [Introducing the Labour Market Pulse: free monthly hiring and salary data from live postings](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/labour-market-pulse) - [How to Stay Up to Date With Hiring Trends?](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/how-to-stay-up-to-date-with-hiring-trends) - [Labour market intelligence: what it is, who sells it, and how to get it (2026)](https://jobspipe.dev/blog/labour-market-intelligence) --- Try it with no key: `curl -d '{"limit":3}' https://api.jobspipe.dev/v1/sandbox/jobs/search`. AI agents: the full machine-readable index of this site is https://jobspipe.dev/llms.txt?src=md-twin - API quickstart, MCP server, pricing. Free key (1,000 jobs to start): https://jobspipe.dev/signup