and facebook. they were the top two social networks used for recruiting job candidates. for johns hopkins, the strategy is working. in april they have 35 p.a. and nurse practitioner openings but with the targeted ads, they have hired 18 candidates with 100 more in the pipeline. we have to go after them. we can t wait for them to come find us. reporter: right now there are 6.1 million job openings in the u.s. in 2016, 46% of employers reported difficulty filling their empty positions. that s up from 32% in 2015. but recruiting people from a distance could help bring those numbers back down. i think that discovering jobs online is the future, and i think that location-based advertisement is an enhancement to that. reporter: paul knight is a digital marketing expert whose company uses geofencing technology. he s seen it go from the retail space to job recruiting. placing an ad for a few dollars
welcome back. the dumbarton bridge at that time digital marketing world has figured out sending things based on your location. it sets up a target zone for your ads. you may have seen these ads pop up on your phone as you pass by a store front. it is now being used by recruiters wanting to target certain people with job openings. tom costello reports. reporter: mid-morning at johns hopkins all children s hospital in st. pete i m going to listen to your heart, okay? reporter: ashley shepherd is making the e.r. rounds. when s the last time you had a treatment? reporter: aas a specially trained pediatric physician s
assistant, ashley is in high demand across the country but there s a reason she ended up here. the hospital was targeting her phone. i kept seeing john hopkins all children showing up so i started investigating more and seeing what opportunities they had available. reporter: every time ashley drove to her old job in dallas, help wanted ads would pop up. jo johns hopkins is using geof geofencing technology, targeting cell phones in zip codes with pediatric hospitals, in seattle, chicago, boston, ohio, and texas. kind of like those online shopping ads that keep following you. pediatric nurse practitioners, this is on somebody s facebook page? absolutely. we specifically targeted them around whatever profile they set up online. reporter: including linkedin