layiq
/la·yiq/adjective
worthy; deserving; fitting; suitable.
A role, opportunity, or path that merits attention, time, and pursuit.
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How we research our guides
Every LAYIQ guide cites the sources behind its claims and shows the date we read each one. This page explains how we choose, read, date and check those sources, what a guide will not say, and how to tell us when we have got something wrong.
Who publishes the guides
LAYIQ publishes the guides as an organization. They carry no individual byline: the markup search engines read names LAYIQ as each guide’s author and publisher, and the claims rest on the sources listed at the foot of the page. To learn more about the company, see Who is LAYIQ?.
LAYIQ builds a job search product, so we have an interest in these topics. When a guide points to a LAYIQ tool or page, it says that it is ours, and what LAYIQ says about itself is cited to LAYIQ’s own pages like any other source.
We use AI tools to help find sources, draft text and check it. Whatever drafted a sentence, the same rules on this page apply to it. How LAYIQ uses AI describes the AI inside the product itself.
How we choose and read sources
- The original, where there is one. For law, we read the statute or the state’s official page. For numbers, we read the agency or study that produced them. For what a company does, we read the company’s own policy or help page. If we cite a news report or a company’s survey instead, the guide says what it is.
- Read, not remembered. Each source in a guide’s list was read on the date shown, from the publisher’s own page. A page we could not read is not cited.
- Quotations are matched. A quotation is checked against the source’s text on the date shown. A paraphrase carries a numbered citation that links to its entry in the Sources list.
- Vendor claims are labeled. What a company says about its own product, and a survey run or paid for by a company that sells in the area, is described as that company’s, with who ran it and what it measured. A study that has not been peer reviewed is called a preprint or working paper.
- Numbers come with their scope. A statistic appears with who measured it, when, and what it measures. A figure with no primary source is left out, and where no official count exists, the guide says so.
- LAYIQ’s own numbers are labeled as LAYIQ’s. Counts from the job postings LAYIQ lists are drawn live from its own index and explained, with their limits, on a data page. They are not presented as a rate for the whole job market.
What the dates on a guide mean
| Date | Where it appears | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Updated | Under the title of every guide, in the markup search engines read as the date modified, and as the page’s date in the sitemap | The day the guide’s content last changed. |
| Published | In the markup search engines read, and in the guide’s social preview | The day the guide first went live. |
| Accessed | In each entry of the Sources list | The day we last read that source. A guide can be edited without every source being read again, so a source’s date can be earlier than the guide’s Updated date. |
| As of | In the text, beside law, bills and other facts that change | The day that fact was checked. After that day, check the official page again. |
A source’s own publication date is listed when the source gives one, because an old page can still be the current statement and a new page can repeat an old claim.
What a guide will not say
- No labels on named employers, job sites or postings. A guide can teach you how to check a job. It does not call a named employer, job site or posting a ghost job, fake or a scam, because a check from the outside shows what is published, not what anyone intends.
- No promises. A guide does not promise an interview, an offer or any other outcome, and does not say LAYIQ has no ghost jobs.
- Law is general information. Legal text is dated “as of” a day, cites the official page, and is not legal advice.
The automated checks every guide must pass
Automated tests read every published guide and list the problems they find. A guide that breaks one of these rules fails the test run:
- A page title of 60 characters or fewer that ends in “| LAYIQ”, and a description of 110 to 165 characters.
- At least one section heading, at least three frequently asked questions and at least three sources.
- For every source: a publisher, a title, a secure (https) link and the date we read it. Every citation in the text must match a listed source.
- Links to LAYIQ’s own site may point only to a fixed list of its public sections, and a link to a guide, tool or data page must name one that exists.
- Links to other sites must be secure (https). A source, button or related link that is not secure fails the check, and in the text an insecure link shows only its words, with no link.
- No raw HTML, and none of the banned claims: that LAYIQ has “no ghost jobs,” that any outcome is “guaranteed,” or that a posting or employer is fake.
- An Updated date that is not earlier than the Published date.
These checks catch slips in format and wording. They cannot tell whether a source says what a guide says it does. That is the work of reading the source and matching its quotations, described above.
Updates and corrections
Guides that depend on things that change, such as law and pending bills, say when each fact was checked. When something a guide relies on changes, or a reader tells us it is wrong, we read the source again, fix the guide and move its Updated date. We change an “as of” date only after reading the official page again.
To report a mistake, use the support page. Tell us which guide and which sentence, and link to what you believe is correct. We check the claim against the source before we change the guide.