[elwell]

I loathe these uses of 'probability':

  "2.5 billion people in the world have internet access.
  Statistically speaking, the chances that the best person
  for us to hire for any position is among the 0.023 billion
  people in the New York metro area is unlikely."

[sudonim]

Hi, OP here... I felt that sentence was a little awkward. There are other things to take in to consideration -- english speaking people. People with requisite skills etc...

At least when I was thinking about it, I wanted to convey the sheer magnitude. New York is the largest city in the US (8m), but I used the metro area (23m) as my population size. But even with all the people in New York, we'd be limiting ourselves if we say "You must be physically nearby". 2.5 bn with internet access seemed to convey the scale of things - albeit imperfectly.

What would you recommend is a better way to do it?

[elwell]

To me, the sentence wasn't awkward. Rather, the way the probability was implied ignored that the best (most skilled) employees are not evenly distributed across the globe. I would wager your likelihood of randomly choosing a 'top' candidate from the 2.5bn pool compared to the 0.023bn to be something near 1:500, for example. But, you do still have a point. An alternative phrasing, which acknowledges the irregular distribution, might be:

  "2.5 billion people in the world have internet access.
  Statistically speaking, the chances that the best person
  for us to hire for any position is among the 0.023 billion
  people in the New York metro area is unlikely, even
  considering the high concentration of talent in New York."