Does the World Economic Forum matter to job seekers?

Today marks the first day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and it’s already newsworthy since Xi Jinping will be the first President from China to attend the annual gathering. Following on the theme from this year’s event — responsive and responsible leadership—President Xi plans to promote “inclusive globalization.”

The outcomes of high-stakes international events like the WEF can easily turn on a simple phrase like that. Speakers choose their words deliberately, knowing that global markets can be instantly affected by how they are interpreted—including job markets.

A quick look into Textio’s global hiring data (which is now surpassing 70 million job posts with hiring outcomes!) shows that global finance language definitely has a pronounced effect on how long it takes to fill open positions, especially at higher levels of responsibility.

In particular, if you mention “global finance” in a job post aimed at an executive level hire, the job will fill an average of 17 days faster than the normal rate of 36 days. That’s almost twice as fast! The idea of being a part of a company dealing with finance issues on a global level is appealing at any rank of a company: non-executive roles with the phrase “global finance” also filled seven days faster on average.

However, when you remove the finance part of the phrase, the situation changes. Executives are still attracted to the word “worldwide,” those roles fill five days faster on average. However, people looking for non-executive roles were less drawn to the word, and those roles pretty much stayed the same in terms of how fast they hire.