Metodología para el análisis de demanda laboral mediante datos de Internet: El caso Colombiano

The recent labour market situation of unemployment in Colombia shows that its cyclical component has been reduced to a minimum and that, therefore, most of the current unemployment refers to the frictional and structural typologies of unemployment, and can be largely explained by the "mismatch" between demand and supply of labour. The lack of information on the needs and requirements of the productive sector deepens and maintains, even more, the existing gaps between both components of the labour market. Given this situation, this paper proposes a solution to the lack of information on the quantitative and qualitative requirements of labour demand, based on a big data methodology, that is to say, the agglomeration and systematization of large amounts of information, taking as a source of information the information used by the Colombian job boards in their placement activities. Once this information has been processed, and then compared with the information on labour supply available in household surveys, it can be concluded that a vacancy base built on the basis of big data in Colombia is an excellent tool for understanding the demand that the productive sector has for different skills and, therefore, for the formulation of comprehensive public education and training policies, which are highly required in the country. This article documents the pioneering effort in this regard.