Virginia, Maryland among best places for job seekers flipdog.com, HireStrategy release Febraury Job opportunity index

Reston, VA, February 28, 2001

Virginia ranks fifth and Maryland ranks ninth in the February edition of the Job Opportunity Index (JOI), a new monthly report produced by FlipDog.com and its strategic partner, HireStrategy.

Topping the February report as the state with the best opportunities for job seekers is Massachusetts, followed by California, Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia. Connecticut ranks sixth, followed by Minnesota, Vermont, Maryland and Washington State.

At the other end of the scale, West Virginia, a state where unemployment is high and job opportunities are limited, ranks fiftieth in the nation on the February JOI.

The monthly JOI takes a new approach to analyzing the job opportunity climate across the United States, describing states where job seekers have the advantage versus states where employers and recruiters have the upper hand.

The JOI ranks all 50 states according to their current job opportunity climates. The JOI is based on statistical methodology that utilizes FlipDog.com's sample of jobs listed on employers' Web sites, along with unemployment and workforce data from the U.S. Department of Labor. The JOI is not intended to be an exhaustive survey of U.S. employers.

"There are job opportunities out there if you just know where to look," says Brett Walker, vice president of marketing at FlipDog.com. "States at the top of the list, like Virginia and Maryland, have much better opportunity climates for job seekers. Unemployment is low in both states and opportunities abound, particularly in technology. The pendulum swings the other way for West Virginia and other states at the bottom of the list - giving employers and recruiters their pick of local, qualified candidates."

Paul Villella, President and CEO of HireStrategy and an advisor to FlipDog.com, says Virginia and Maryland's high ranking should come as no surprise. "Despite the current slowdown in the national economy, our area job market continues to show great vitality. The diversified technology economy of the Greater Washington area is experiencing a 'softer landing' than other parts of the country."

Villella says the area's high-growth information technology and telecommunications and management services sectors will help the region grow faster this year than other technology regions like Boston, Silicon Valley, Seattle, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina.

According to the February JOI, qualified job seekers in the following states currently have a greater advantage due to lower unemployment and numerous available openings:

States where unemployment is high and job opportunities are limited have a tougher opportunity climate. In these states, hiring organizations have a clearer advantage when it comes to whom they hire and what they pay.

FlipDog.com, Provo, Utah, is the Web's largest commercial career site (www.flipdog.com), with over 650,000 jobs from more than 52,000 employers, and is ranked by PC Magazine as one of the Top 100 Web Sites in the world. FlipDog.com is powered by technology from WhizBang! LabsTM, the leading provider of Web-based information extraction tools and services. Through its "Powered by FlipDog.com" program, the company develops and implements fully customized and branded career search capabilities on its partners' Web sites.

HireStrategy, Reston, Virginia, is a Web-enabled executive recruiting firm serving technology businesses and professionals. HireStrategy's innovative approach combines the power of the Internet with personal relationships built on years of highly successful management consulting experience. The company's Web site (www.hirestrategy.com) provides valuable career development resources for job candidates and proven recruitment and retention strategies for companies. HireStrategy's proprietary technology (the HireGuideTM) enables personalized service through Internet channels for candidates and employers. The company, founded in January 2000, was recently named one of the hottest executive recruiting firms in the area by Washington Business Forward magazine.