Job Boards Facing Social Future

A new report says Australian job boards were forced to face “simmering doubts about their relevance” in 2009 against the backdrop of the global financial crisis.

The report, released by Destination Talent, found the Australian online employment classifieds market dropped by an estimated 21 percent in 2009. Leading portal seek.com.au’s job vacancies dropped to record lows and its share price also bottomed out in June.

In this difficult market, established brands such as seek.com.au and careerone.com.au continued to take 80 percent of the revenue, leaving little for the smaller niche players.

The report found that while “nimble and well run” niche sites were thriving, many niche players were still using traffic strategies more suited to the bigger players, leaving them with “neither unique content nor a community of job seekers or traffic to entice advertisers.”

Destination Talent says the influence of social media on job board use is one of the main issues job boards will have to tackle in the near future, even if its effects are not yet being felt.

“While social media offers compelling reasons for adoption, there is little evidence of mass migration from job boards,” the company states. “Still, past glory amounts to little, and like all players in the employment game the task to stay relevant will be all consuming for job board owners.”

The full report is available for download here.

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