Twitter can be used to track unemployment numbers and patterns

Governments aren’t usually quick to react to changes in demographics. They frequently have to take surveys that are not only slow, but don’t always paint a complete picture of what’s going on. Researchers at the Autonomous University of Madrid have discovered a far more effective way of keeping tabs on the population, however: tracking Twitter updates. They’ve found that the content, frequency and timing of tweets across Spain correlate well with joblessness levels in their respective regions. People in high unemployment areas tend to not only mention jobs more often in their posts, but tweet more in the morning and make a larger number of spelling mistakes.