Although Enterprise had identified four target locations, Monster provided information on other markets that had the most talent to support Enterprise’s hiring needs. Monster also evaluated growth metrics for over 200 locations, allowing for market-to-market comparisons.  In many cases, Monster evaluates additional talent-related metrics to assess a market for clients.  Some of these additional talent-related factors include:

• Desired salary.
• Flexibility in scheduling.

Monster assessed the demand for talent in each potential market. it ranked over 200 markets based on the number of resumes per job posting and conducted additional analyses of the top twenty locations for 2007 with the highest resumes per job posting within the area of customer service and call centers. A high number of resumes per job posting indicate an abundant labor supply, thus a surplus of interested candidates.

Although the four markets on Enterprise’s short list did not fall within the top twenty markets nationally, Market A was ranked in the top 25 percent of the over 200 markets in terms of resumes per posting. Overall job postings on Monster in Market A had grown 12 percent over the same period a year earlier. However, customer-service job postings in Market A grew at an even greater 27 percent over the same period the year before.

Monster also analyzed the current economic trends related to customer-service and call-center occupations that could impact hiring for these critical occupations. Below are some key takeaways from the analysis at a national level, as well as for the key markets that were under consideration:

• As an industry, dedicated call centers had experienced a dip in employment over the past ten years. The last recession (2000–2002) hastened the automation and offshoring of traditional call-center services by a large contingent of American companies.
• By the end of 2004, there were approximately 2.1 million customer-service representatives employed in the United States, which was 1.5 percent of the overall workforce.
• Projected employment growth between 2004 and 2014 for the customer-service occupation was 23 percent greater than the average of all occupations
• The state of Arizona had the highest concentration of customer-service representatives—2.7 percent of total state employment.
• Market D had the highest job growth, indicating a strong local economy where new job opportunities were being created at a rapid pace.
• Market A’s metropolitan area jobless rate had decreased to 4.7 percent in May 2007, down from 5.1 percent a year earlier. These numbers were considerably more favorable for recruiting compared to other markets under consideration.
• Market A was the weakest of the four markets short-listed by Enterprise in terms of job creation. Payroll in Market A grew 1.1 percent year over year in May 2007, which was slower than the U.S. rate as a whole.

Monster also looked at the competition for customer-service talent. It identified companies that had existing call centers or were in the process of opening up such facilities in the considered markets. For example, Market E and Market F (which were within fifty miles of Market D) had become home to over 200 new customer-service centers. The competition and cost for talent in these markets were much higher than in other markets. The favorable competitive situation in Market A, combined with many other factors, provided support for the recommendation that Enterprise select Market A as the location for its new customer contact center.