Thursday, March 22, 2012

Social media predicts unemployment spikes

Some day we won’t have to wait until the monthly unemployment report to know what’s happening in the job market.

New research shows cyber chatter can predict the rise and fall of unemployment in real time.
Many of us complain about our financial health in social media, including everything from cutting back on healthcare to deciding not to buy that new car. Such discussions can provide a window into employment conditions months before traditional government statistics.

Those are the findings of a recent study by software firm SAS and a United Nation's data initiative UN Global Pulse that looked at online discussions in the United States and Ireland over a two-year period and found increased social media talk about things such as postponing vacations or taking more mass transit predicted spikes in the unemployment rates in both countries. More...

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