The Utility of Social Media in Understanding the Future of Work
Jalehsadat Mahdavimoghaddam · 2022
There is a growing body of research that leverages online social networks to study users’ interests and behaviors for reasons such as personalization and recommendation. However, the utility of online social platforms in understanding and predicting the labor market has not received the attention that it deserves in the literature. Therefore, this Ph.D. research will explore the temporal and causal relationships between online social topics and the changes in the job market from several complementary aspects. More specifically, this research will be focused on addressing three main problems: (1) investigating whether social content is an effective indicator of future job requirements; (2) analyzing if any meaningful causal relationship could be found between work-related emotions expressed on online social platforms and their social demographics; and, (3) identifying potential causal impacts of community support on the online users’ well-being in the future job market. The findings of my doctoral dissertation will assist learners and job seekers to gain insight into important job-related skill trends, which can help them in their career-long learning process to stay in demand and remain employable. Also, the outcomes of this thesis can help governments and policymakers understand workforce challenges and design programs and solutions that can support workers in the knowledge economy and enhance their well-being.