Online Job Recruitment Shows Growth

Maynard, Mass.-based Monster released its monthly index Thursday. The index measures monthly job demand, obtaining information from more than 1,500 Web sites and millions of job opportunity listings. The latest findings showed a jump of eight points from July to August (142). The index was up 30 points from August of 2004.

"This month's data provides a promising snapshot of our current economy," Steve Pogorzelski, president of Monster North America said in a statement Thursday. "This well-distributed growth is a very encouraging sign for the fall hiring season, especially in conjunction with other positive economic data including a recent four-year low in weekly jobless claims.

Pogorzelski said the findings showed growth in all regions and all 50 states and that they point toward a bright future for online recruitment and the broader labor market. The Pacific and Mountain regions led the pack for month-to-month increases, according to the report. Hawaii, Arizona, Indiana and Washington had the greatest increases among the states.

The index had slipped from 136 in June 2005 to 134 in July 2005, but the industry normally slows down in the summer.

CareerBuilder.com also said it has seen strong growth this year.

The network's $228 million revenue was up 83 percent in the first six months of the year, compared with the same time period in 2004. The site features over 1 million jobs and averages 20 million unique visitors a month, according to Jennifer Sullivan, director of corporate communications at CareerBuilder.com. In addition to its own site, the company powers the online job search centers for over 700 partners. They include: AOL, MSN and more than 165 newspapers.

New York City-based Corzen, which researches and analyzes market forces, reported that CareerBuilder.com had 43.4 percent of the market share in August. Monster had 37.2 percent and Yahoo! HotJobs reported a 200 percent increase in the total number of job listings this year. The two leading industries, technology and health care rose 375 percent and 384 percent respectively.

Earlier this year, Mintel International Group Ltd. predicted that revenue from online advertising would grow from nearly $6 billion to reach $16 billion by 2008. The consumer, media and market research firm forecast $5.9 billion in revenue from online recruitment and membership by 2009. Mintel, which has offices in Chicago, London, Belfast and Sydney, reported that 96 percent of Fortune 500 companies are already using online recruiting.