Including Unemployed in LinkedIn Searches

While Recruiters typically avoid reaching out to unemployed prospects, this year is different. However, if you search for the current title or company, you will not find professionals who have lost their jobs due to COVID.

Here is how to include them.

On LinkedIn, search using keywords and other filters but not a current title or company. On Recruiter, also, do not use years of experience, at the company, or in position.

What about X-Raying? For people with a current job, LinkedIn public profiles show their titles and companies. For people without, public profile titles include their school in the format <name> – <school name> – LinkedIn:

So, if you X-Ray for a school name in the page titles – site:linkedin.com/in intitle:”university of chicago” – your results will include the school’s alumni with no current jobs. Unfortunately, your results will also include the school’s employees. But if your target audience is outside of people in Education, you can reliably find unemployed by X-Raying. Optionally, add #opentowork to narrow your searches.

P.S. Adding or excluding the word “present” in LinkedIn X-Ray does not help find profiles with or without current positions because the word is added to the profiles by JavaScript. Google often does not index it, and neither does Bing.

All that said, if you are a job seeker, it is best to keep your current job “open,” to be found more often. We will understand.