Understanding Business Sectors / Industries

Business Sectors (also called Industries) let you define the industries your company works with, such as Automotive, Entertainment, or Energy. Understanding how Business Sectors function helps you maintain cleaner data and more consistent reporting across Candidates, Companies, Contacts, and Jobs.

Common Reasons to Manage Business Sectors

You may come to this article if you need to:

  • Add new industries or update the existing list of Business Sectors.

  • Remove or deactivate Business Sectors that are no longer used.

  • Align lists across regions, brands, or Private Labels.

  • Troubleshoot why your Industry field is empty.

  • Confirm who can access and manage Business Sectors in Bullhorn.

  • Understand how Business Sectors relate to other value lists like Categories or Skills.

What Business Sectors Do

Business Sectors let you tag records by the industries they belong to. This helps teams segment and search efficiently across your database.

  • On Candidate records, Business Sectors indicate which industries the candidate has experience in or would like to work in.

  • On Company and Contact records, they represent the industry the business operates in.

  • On Job records, they show which industry the job belongs to.

Using Business Sectors is optional. Some companies prefer to use Categories for similar segmentation.

Business Sectors are shared lists. When you add or remove a sector, the change applies across all entities that use it (Companies, Contacts, Candidates, and Jobs).

Default Business Sectors

These are the default Business Sectors Bullhorn provides. You can keep them as-is or customize the list to reflect your market:

  • Apparel
  • Automotive
  • Banking
  • Building & Construction
  • Business Services
  • Commercial Public Services
  • Distribution & Restaurants
  • Domestic Services
  • Fashion & Footwear
  • Finance
  • Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals
  • Industry & Agriculture
  • Law & Insurance
  • Media
  • Office Equipment
  • Others
  • Publishing & Production
  • Real Estate
  • Retail
  • Transports
  • Travel & Tourism

Adding or Removing Business Sectors

  • On Team Edition, Business Sectors are predefined and cannot be edited or expanded.

  • On other editions, you can request updates to your Business Sector list through Bullhorn Support.

    • When submitting your request, include the name(s) of the sector(s) to add and/or remove.

    • If your company uses multiple Private Labels, specify which Private Label(s) the updates should be made on.

    • For large changes, provide a full CSV list when submitting your Support request.

Deleting a Business Sector affects all existing records where that sector is selected.

Field Mapping and Where Business Sectors Appear

Business Sectors are linked to record fields through Field Mappings. These fields are most commonly labeled as "Business Sector" or "Industry".

To see which fields in your database use the Business Sector list (Admins only):

  1. Go to Admin > Field Mappings.

  2. Expand the desired Entity (e.g., Company or Candidate).

  3. Filter for fields with an Edit Type of Picker:Business Sector. These fields pull directly from your Business Sector list.

 

  • Business Sectors appear alphabetically in the field value list; reordering isn’t supported.

  • Business Sectors are tied to Private Labels. If your company uses multiple Private Labels, you may have a different set of Business Sectors for each Private Label.

FAQ

What’s the difference between Business Sectors and Categories?

Business Sectors identify industries, while Categories typically represent a high-level grouping of related job occupations or skills within those industries. Some companies use both for more granular search and reporting.

Can I add my own Business Sectors?

Support Contacts can request additions through Bullhorn Support. Team Edition does not support additional Business Sectors.

What happens if a Business Sector is deleted?

Deleting a Business Sector removes the value from pickers and may leave blank fields on existing records.

Can I have different Business Sector lists per region or brand?

Yes, if your company has multiple Private Labels you can have separate Business Sector lists for each. Contact Bullhorn Support to confirm eligibility.

Why is my Business Sector list empty?

The field may be mapped incorrectly. Check your Field Mappings to ensure the field uses the correct Edit Type (Picker:Business Sector).

Why do different users see different Business Sector lists?

Verify if your system uses multiple Private Labels, as Business Sector lists are tied to an individual Private Label.

How do Business Sectors relate to Skills or Categories?

They are separate value lists but often used together for searching and reporting. For example, Industry = Healthcare and Category = Nursing.