What is NORAS? NORAS (the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey) is a survey of job sites and job boards in the United Kingdom and Ireland. NORAS aims to offer independent and objective data to help advertisers compare the audiences of different job sites and job boards.

What the NORAS surveys cover:

1. Audience size
   NORAS surveys and establishes the audience size of participating job sites and job boards so that advertisers can know how many people actually use them. The metric used to measure the audience size is the industry-standard 'Unique User' figure. The user statistics are collected and audited by ABC ELECTRONIC. 
2. Audience profile
   NORAS also surveys the users of the participating job sites and job boards in order to build up a detailed demographic profile of their audiences. The demographic information collated about each job site is quite detailed and includes such things as gender and racial breakdown, where the job site users are actually located and where they are willing to work, their salaries, work experience, educational level, qualifications, the newspapers they read, what their current jobs are etc. The information is collected via online questionnaires that are run on the job sites and is, perhaps, the most detailed information on job site audiences available anywhere.

Who is NORAS for?

The NORAS survey tends to be of most interest to online recruitment advertising agencies, the marketing departments of recruitment consultancies and large corporate employers, as the information can help them make valuable advertising decisions about job sites and job boards.

However, smaller employers can use the NORAS information too. The NORAS website offers an interactive tool that allows you to quickly compare participating NORAS job sites and job boards. Rather like whatjobsite, the interactive tool is based on estimated user reach (i.e. an estimate of the number of people a particular site will have for a particular job.)

Clearly, NORAS is a valuable tool that can help you evaluate and understand a job site audience. Job sites and job boards that participate in NORAS are to be commended and we at whatjobsite view participation as an indication of quality and trustworthiness.  For more information on the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey and a list of participating sites, go to NORAS.co.uk

Article Updated: September 2007

For more information on topics covered here, please visit the following links:

• National Online Recruitment Audience Survey
• ABC ELECTRONIC

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