Good-Bye Job Boards?

As a job seeker, you already know this, I'm sure.  Not all jobs get posted on-line.  In fact, the good ones are filled through referrals and never make the job boards.  So why are they being used to measure the health of the job market by The Conference Board, Inc?

(FYI, The help-wanted on-line data series measures the number of first-time on-line job ads and unduplicated on-line ads in nine census regions and 52 metropolitan Internet job boards and job boards serving smaller geographic areas)

Hot off the press of RBJ which reported Conference Board findings for the month:

• "Rochester-area businesses posted fewer total ads than each of the largest MSAs surveyed nationally".

This is an interested finding and I am don't know how to explain the root cause of this lag. (We entered into the recession later than some regions, not all of them.) 

• June 2008  4.63 million jobs posted nationally
• June 2009  3.29 million jobs posted nationally

Net change  1.34 million fewer jobs posted nationally.  Where did they all go?

I don't think you can blame all of this on the economy. There may be fewer companies hiring because they are watching expenses after their decline in profits.  It could also be that with so many people out and looking, employers don't want to be overwhelmed by resumes and applicants. They may, in fact, be hiring.  Perhaps they are using methods the Conference Board hasn't found a way to track yet- referrals and social network platforms.

Dan Schwabel's been conducting his own research and predicts the end is near for job boards. Read his full post! He has only 220 respondents so far and will continue the study longer, however, initial findings are:

 

There are some key points here:

1. We are living in rapidly changing times

2. The way we used to do things is changing
3. Network now and always to manage your career!

Comments

[David]

The wall street journal just wrote an article about a technology that is replacing monster and careerbuilder.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204475004574126832685403014.html

[career sherpa]

Dean: Boards are morphing, that is for sure. I think what the job seekers need to understand, many already do, is that technology is changing how they are finding jobs. Employers don't want to be overwhelmed with job applicants and resumes, therefore, I think many are turning to alternative methods to avoid the crowds and screen out the mediocre. Does that sound plausible?

Mike: Referrals are the top methods by which employers are sourcing external candidats. JobVite and CareerXroads both agree. The boards are going to have to get smarter if they want to stay alive, agreed!

[mike lally]

Some thoughts. First, Hannah, don't forget the jobvite survey stats that support the dramatic increase in employee referrals vs. job boards.

Second - facebook is not a fad. Go read the July 2009 issue of "Wired" for some impressive numbers.

Third - I think there will always be job AGGREGATORS. Places that crawl public corporate sites and collect the postings.

But I don't really see a promising future for simple job boards. Companies will not keep paying for an inferior service when they can source quality candidates for free from places like linkedin and facebook. Candidates based on RELATIONSHIPS.

[Dean Davis]

Wow, Every 2 weeks another article about the end of the job boards. It is not going to happen. I have been hearing this for 10 years on a regular basis. Twitter job search - Fad, Facebook - Fad. Job Boards - Not Fad. Things change fast but the job boards always get keep going like that damn bunny on tv. www.JobHill.com is a great network of niche job boards that has recently added executive recruiting.