Improving Employee Headcount Accuracy by State with LinkedIn Data

Elric L. · 2025-10-28 01:41:37.348716+00

I’m working on getting the number of employees by state, for example, if a company’s HQ is in Texas, I want to know how many employees they have in Texas. The Enrich Company data from Clay is accurate for total employees on LinkedIn, but when I use “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria” and set the location to Texas (or State = Texas), the results aren’t very accurate. Examples: • Found 144 via Clay → 201 on Sales Nav • 197 via Clay → 317 on Sales Nav • 444 via Clay → 823 on Sales Nav • 65 via Clay → 115 on Sales Nav I’m trying to find the ratio of employees in the same state as the HQ. What’s the best way to get a more accurate number (closer to LinkedIn’s) than what I’m getting from “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria”?

Improving Employee Headcount Accuracy by State with LinkedIn Data | Clay

15 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Clay Support
APP
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The "Find Employee Headcount by Criteria" action has known limitations with state-level filtering. The sources show it accepts "Locations" as input (city or country), but state-level granularity may not match LinkedIn Sales Navigator's data. [1]
Alternative approach:
Try the People Data Labs "Get Employee Count by Criteria" action, which offers a "Country Filter" for location-specific data. [2] While this also focuses on country-level filtering, it may provide different data coverage. [3]
The discrepancies you're seeing (30-50% lower counts) suggest data source differences between our providers and LinkedIn's internal data. For more accurate state-level employee counts matching Sales Navigator, you may need to explore a different methodology or data provider.
If you'd like help troubleshooting your specific setup or exploring other options, click "Talk to a person" for human assistance.
Clay Support
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Was that helpful?
Elric L.
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I also tried People Data labs and same as the “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria”. Not Accurate
Clay Support
APP
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Unfortunately, both our native "Find Employee Headcount by Criteria" and People Data Labs actions have the same limitation: they don't support state-level filtering with the precision you need. [1] [2]
The "Find Employee Headcount by Criteria" accepts locations as cities or countries, and People Data Labs only offers country-level filtering. Neither matches Sales Navigator's state-level granularity or data coverage.
For your specific use case—calculating the ratio of employees in the same state as HQ—you'll likely need a different approach or data provider that our current integrations don't support. If you'd like to explore custom solutions or alternative workflows, click "Talk to a person" for human assistance.
Clay Support
APP
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·
Is that what you were looking for?
Elric L.
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Talk to a person
Clay Support
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I’m routing you to our human team now. They’ll be able to assist you further.
Intercom
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Kabeer A.
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Hey! The “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria” enrichment in Clay uses aggregated public employee data (not directly from LinkedIn’s live index), which is why it often undercounts compared to Sales Navigator especially for large companies or those with distributed teams. The best way to improve accuracy is to:
1.
Run Find People filtered by company + state (or location keyword).
2.
Count the returned rows to estimate regional headcount (you can scale this via a formula or AI block).
3.
Optionally use Find Employee Headcount by Criteria as a baseline and apply a correction ratio derived from a small verified sample of Sales Nav data.
4.
That usually gets you within ~10–15% of LinkedIn’s true numbers.
Elric L.
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Thanks, I just tried what you suggested, Find People filtered by company + state, and I got the same results as with “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria.”
Natalie H.
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Hi Elric, thanks for reaching out! I know this is a bit more expensive, but have you considered using People Data Labs' Get Employee Count by Criteria?
Loading attachments
Elric L.
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Hi Natalie, yes but same as using Employee count by criteria, it’s not accurate
Natalie H.
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Please let me know if you have any further questions or need additional help!
Elric L.
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Natalie H. I found an alternative. I ran two “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria” searches:
1.
One for Texas
2.
One for outside of Texas
Then I used a formula: Texas employees / (Texas employees + Outside of Texas employees) This gives me the ratio of employees in Texas compared to the total company headcount, and the results are much closer to what I’m seeing in Sales Nav. I'm good with that!
Natalie H.
·
·
Amazing!! Thanks for the update Elric. This is a great idea. Please keep in touch as new items come up!
1

Clay Support
APP
·
·
The "Find Employee Headcount by Criteria" action has known limitations with state-level filtering. The sources show it accepts "Locations" as input (city or country), but state-level granularity may not match LinkedIn Sales Navigator's data. [1]
Alternative approach:
Try the People Data Labs "Get Employee Count by Criteria" action, which offers a "Country Filter" for location-specific data. [2] While this also focuses on country-level filtering, it may provide different data coverage. [3]
The discrepancies you're seeing (30-50% lower counts) suggest data source differences between our providers and LinkedIn's internal data. For more accurate state-level employee counts matching Sales Navigator, you may need to explore a different methodology or data provider.
If you'd like help troubleshooting your specific setup or exploring other options, click "Talk to a person" for human assistance.
Clay Support
APP
·
·
Was that helpful?
Elric L.
·
·
I also tried People Data labs and same as the “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria”. Not Accurate
Clay Support
APP
·
·
Unfortunately, both our native "Find Employee Headcount by Criteria" and People Data Labs actions have the same limitation: they don't support state-level filtering with the precision you need. [1] [2]
The "Find Employee Headcount by Criteria" accepts locations as cities or countries, and People Data Labs only offers country-level filtering. Neither matches Sales Navigator's state-level granularity or data coverage.
For your specific use case—calculating the ratio of employees in the same state as HQ—you'll likely need a different approach or data provider that our current integrations don't support. If you'd like to explore custom solutions or alternative workflows, click "Talk to a person" for human assistance.
Clay Support
APP
·
·
Is that what you were looking for?
Elric L.
·
·
Talk to a person
Clay Support
APP
·
·
I’m routing you to our human team now. They’ll be able to assist you further.
Intercom
APP
·
·
Clay Support is sharing a file with you.
Our support team has got your message and we'll get back to you soon! We're currently outside of our standard office hours (9 AM to 9 PM EST, Monday through Friday), so it may take a little longer for us to respond.
If you’re dealing with a specific table, drop the URL below so we can help you quicker. Otherwise, someone from our team will be in touch soon!
Loading attachments
Kabeer A.
·
·
Hey! The “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria” enrichment in Clay uses aggregated public employee data (not directly from LinkedIn’s live index), which is why it often undercounts compared to Sales Navigator especially for large companies or those with distributed teams. The best way to improve accuracy is to:
1.
Run Find People filtered by company + state (or location keyword).
2.
Count the returned rows to estimate regional headcount (you can scale this via a formula or AI block).
3.
Optionally use Find Employee Headcount by Criteria as a baseline and apply a correction ratio derived from a small verified sample of Sales Nav data.
4.
That usually gets you within ~10–15% of LinkedIn’s true numbers.
Elric L.
·
·
Thanks, I just tried what you suggested, Find People filtered by company + state, and I got the same results as with “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria.”
Natalie H.
·
·
Hi Elric, thanks for reaching out! I know this is a bit more expensive, but have you considered using People Data Labs' Get Employee Count by Criteria?
Loading attachments
Elric L.
·
·
Hi Natalie, yes but same as using Employee count by criteria, it’s not accurate
Natalie H.
·
·
Please let me know if you have any further questions or need additional help!
Elric L.
·
·
Natalie H. I found an alternative. I ran two “Find Employee Headcount by Criteria” searches:
1.
One for Texas
2.
One for outside of Texas
Then I used a formula: Texas employees / (Texas employees + Outside of Texas employees) This gives me the ratio of employees in Texas compared to the total company headcount, and the results are much closer to what I’m seeing in Sales Nav. I'm good with that!
Natalie H.
·
·
Amazing!! Thanks for the update Elric. This is a great idea. Please keep in touch as new items come up!
1