A new report from the Conference Board hows that over 70% of US job seekers use both the newspaper and the Internet to find jobs. In contrast, networking or using an employment agency is far less popular.
The survey also found that among respondents who received a job offer, 38% felt that their offer resulted from their Internet search, a far higher percentage than those who felt the newspaper resulted in a job offer. Perhaps the more sophisticated search ability of online job sites allows job seekers to more easily match their skills to the jobs available. The efficiency by which online job seekers can search, find and respond to job ads is also likely to be an important factor in the higher success rate of online job sites over alternative sources of job ads.
The two leading online job sites in the US are CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com, with each attracting approximately five million unique visitors each week. Yahoo! HotJobs attracts one-fifth that number of visitors, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
The Internet has transformed classified advertising, particularly jobs, automobiles and real estate. eMarketer estimates that online classified advertising will grow to $4 billion in 2010, up from $2.1 billion in 2005.
For more on classified advertising, see eMarketer's US Online Ad Spending:
Peak or Plateau? report.