what's happening | by john mathews, economist

FirmFind—A unique application on Utah’s DWS Web Site

• Where can you get a list of the largest employers in your area?
• If you want to be a computer programmer, where can you find a list of the firms most likely to hire them?
• Who are the largest plumbing contractors in your county?
• About how many workers does a specific firm employ?
• I want to start up a company that sells supplies to medical offices. How can I get a list of potential customers?
 

The Department of Workforce Services (DWS) provides this information, for free. Over 15 years ago I had an idea to create an online tool that would aid school and career counselorsin helping students and job seekers make the connection between an occupation and the employers that employ that occupation. That was the seed that created FirmFind.

DWS is the administrator of the Unemployment Security Act in Utah. A requirement of the Act is for all covered employers to report their employment and wages to the Department. One of the purposes is to calculate an employer’s unemployment insurance tax or contribution rate. Individuals who become unemployed then have a record of how long they worked and what their wages were so unemployment insurance benefits could be calculated. This administrative data and a survey of employers that collects occupational employment information (called the Occupational Employment Statistics or OES Survey) enabled FirmFind to be created.

The beauty of FirmFind is that it creates an efficient way for job seekers andstudents to identify and contact potential employers without going through the phone book or other cumbersome lists. Remember there are over 80,000 employers in Utah. FirmFind engages this huge listing by industry and county to expedite the identification of potential places to apply for work.

In the initial application the system was designed to have individuals enter the occupation they were interested in and a list of the industries in which that occupation was concentrated was produced. The person would then select an industry and a list of employers was generated. The information on employers included the name, address, phone number, industry, and employment range.

That was the original purpose of FirmFind. It has morphed into a very popular source of micro-economic information. You can get a list of the largest employers (by the number of employees) in your county. Also, you can create a list of all the employers classified by what they do and the industry they compete in: for example, a list of the firms that manufacture mining machinery in the state or a selected county.

A business owner looking for a marketing tool can find a listing of firms by industry, county, and number of employees for FREE! And, if you wish, the listing of firms in FirmFind is downloadable in two files: one for Salt Lake County and one for the rest of the state. The download is in a spreadsheet-compatible format. Alternatively, you can do a search and then elect to download just that listing of firms, for example, the firms in Weber County.

Go to the web site at the link below and experiment. You have four choices to access the firm listing in FirmFind: by industry; by occupation; by specific firm name; and by size of firm in a largest firm listing.

FirmFind
Find Firms by Industry
Find Firms by Occupation
Find Largest Firms
Download FirmFind Data
Find Firms by Name
http://jobs.utah.gov/jsp/firmfind/welcome.do