Whatjobsite Job Board Survey 2009 (Summer) The whatjobsite Job Board Survey 2009 was carried out over the summer of 2009. Our goal in conducting the survey was to capture the views and opinions of the job board market from the point of view of those working in it.

We invited some 100 UK job boarders to participate in the survey. This group was made up of Managing Directors, Sales Directors and Marketing staff of leading job boards in the United Kingdom. The survey was carried out online and results were collected anonymously. A total of 43 job boarders took part in our job board survey.

In addition, as part of our ongoing work with job boards, we spoke to many job boarders with a view to getting a qualitative idea of what the statistics really meant for their businesses. We share this feedback and these insights with you in what follows.

 

The Headline Figures

• 56% of job boarders report total business is down 
• 70% report decreases in job posting by Recruitment Consultancies
• 58% report decreases in marketing spend
• 58% report decreases in staff numbers in their companies
• 29% report decreases in real advertising rates
• 68% report increases in job applications
• 64% report increases in unique users
• 58% report increases in CV uploads
  
• 41% report increases in job posting by direct recruiters
• 33.3% report signs of green shoots
• 73% are generally positive about the year to come
  

 

Background: other views of the online recruitment market

The online recruitment market is suffering one of its most difficult periods since its inception. In an industry that for many years saw annual trend growth of 30% or more, the current recession is challenging to say the least. In previous recessions, bubbles and slowdowns the sector was largely insulated from negative impact by the structural move of recruitment advertising from print to online. This time it's different. Job boards are exposed fully to the damaging effects of business and economic conditions as a mature business sector.

It should be noted, however, that the job board sector appears to have begun its downward trend some time before the onslaught of the Credit Crisis and subsequent recession. The BORN Job Advertising Index suggests that the total volume of job postings may have been on a downward trend since as early as August 2007. The Monster index also, generally, supports this trend.

However, what is clear is this gentle downward trend became much more severe with the advent of the Credit Crisis. Total job board postings in June 2009 were down some 56% on June 2008 according to the  BORN Job Advertising Index. The Monster index mirrored that trend but put the downturn at just 37%. From our survey below and in talking to job boards, it would seem that the higher BORN index figure of 56% may more accurately reflect the reality for the majority of our survey participants.

 

 

Question 1: In terms of your different clients/advertisers, how has the volume of recruitment advertising business changed for each compared to the same time in 2008?

 

 

56% of job boarders report an overall decrease in the volume of advertising. This is a much more significant figure than the 21% who report an increase or the 13% who report business as remaining the same.

A painful decrease for 70% of job boards has been the reported decline in Recruitment Consultant advertising spend. For many this revenue stream has long served as the business cash cow. It will, therefore, come as no surprise to learn that many job boards are reporting significant financial and viability problems. A number of job boarders have reported that they have seen revenues decline by some 65% or more; some once popular job boards have suspended operations temporarily and are awaiting the recovery; and some others have ceased trading all together.

It must be acknowledged that 12% of job boarders reported an increase in Recruitment Consultant spend with them. However, those that have seen such increases report that it is largely the result of increased recruitment activity in the Health Sector. These same job board have expressed deep concerns that the up-coming and well-flagged hairshirt budget will likely have detrimental effect on this business too.

45% of job boarders reported a decrease in the large corporate business with just 16% reporting an increase. 29% reported it to have held steady on the year.

For the SME business, 50% saw a decrease in business, 25% saw an increase, while a further 12% saw the sector as holding its own.

66% of job boarders have reported a decline in Recruitment Advertising Agency spend. This is not unexpected. The collapse of a UK veteran, Barkers, attests to the problems that confront the Recruitment Advertising Agency sector.

The Public Sector saw a marginally positive picture with 12% of job boarders reporting a increase in business while 37% saw it holding its own. Again, this may largely be accounted for by the Health Sector. A further 37% saw a decrease.

The non-recruitment business, while a very small part of most job board business, also saw a noticeable reduction for many survey participants: 30% saw a decrease, 21% saw it being the same, and 17% saw an increase.

 

 

Question 2: In general, how has user traffic and job performance changed on your site compared to the same time in 2008?

 

 

It would be fair to say that in June 2008, the recruitment market could still have been described as 'Candidate short.' The loss of jobs, rise in unemployment and general freezing of recruitment investment in the intervening period has transformed this into a 'Candidate rich' market. With more candidates in the market and fewer jobs being advetised, competition for openings has increased, resulting in improved job seeker statistics for the job boards. 68% of job boarders report applications up, 64% unique users, 72% visits and 58% report CV uploads up. 

The implications of this change in the candidate market and job performance have been interesting. Firstly, job boards are reporting significant problems with 'Candidate Spam.' Simply too many candidates (both good and bad) are applying for jobs causing real distress to vacancy advertisers.

Secondly, the increase in applications has led to a decrease in the duration of job ads on job boards. That is, while a year ago recruiters may have advertised their job ads on a site for weeks or months at a time, now they are taking them off after a couple of days because they have received sufficient applicants.

Thirdly, some job boards are reporting that frustration with Candidate Spam has resulted in some recruiters moving away job posting entirely to rely instead on CV databases to source candidates.

Finally, the high levels of active candidates present in the market has led many job boards to make significant cuts (in some cases total) in their candidate acquisition marketing budget.

 

 

Question 3: With regard specifically to your Recruitment Consultant business, how has the use of the following products changed compared to the same time in 2008?

 

 

Nearly all job boards are reporting decreases in the usage of indicative job board products by recruitment consultants: job postings (70% saw a decrease); featured jobs (66% saw a decrease); banners & buttons (65% saw a decrease);  corporate profile pages (56% saw a decrease); CV search (47% saw a decrease); email sponsorships (47% saw a decrease).

In talking to job boards, a number of interesting trends emerge. Firstly, many job boards are reporting a change in the advertising behaviour of recruitment consultants. Traditionally, it was common for recruitment consultants to account for large volumes of job ads by posting the same ads again and again. It was a practice frowned upon by some job board operators, endured by others, and actively encouraged by others. This practice, however, has decreased dramatically.

Secondly, many job boarders are reporting that recruitment consultancy clients have stopped purchasing "extra" advertising products such as banners, buttons etc. Indeed, many job boarders report that they have such difficulty in selling these products that they have largely become "freebies" in contract renewal negotiations or, more often, are discounted heavily and offered to direct recruiters in preference to recruitment consultants.

 

 

Question 4: With regard to Direct Advertisers only (Companies, organizations, public sector but not including Advertising Agencies or Recruitment Agencies), how has the use of the following products changed compared to the same time in 2008?

 

 

41% of job boarders reported that job posting had increased by direct advertisers; at the same time another 41% reported a decrease; another 8% said it was the same as last year. 13% of job boards indicated that CV search was up with 30% saying it was the same as a year ago. 34% saw a decrease in this product line. 17% reported an increase in Email Sponsorship, with 34% saying it was unchanged, and another 26% seeing a decrease. Other products showed similar trends.

Interestingly, a number of job boarders have reported a change in the approach and attitude of many direct recruiters. Aware of the 'candidate rich' market some smaller first-time recruiters are saying that they are "taking a chance" on job boards before opting for their more traditional recruitment methods. At the other end, larger recruiters are reported to be opting increasingly for CV database access over job posting products in order to mitigate against high volumes of candidate spam.

However, while job posting levels may be a little encouraging, what's happening with the additional branding products is less so. With recruitment consultants currently largely uninterested in these products, many job boarders confess to letting unsold branding inventory go to direct employers at either heavily discounted rates or as comps. Unfortunately, how much of the volume growth of this market is accounted for by such "freebies" is uncertain.

 

 

Question 5: With regard to Recruitment Advertising Agency business only, how has the use of the following products changed compared to the same time in 2008?

 

 

The figures speak for themselves here. There is very little for job boarders to be positive about in the Recruitment Advertising Agency sector. All job boarders we spoke to report revenues being significantly down. Indeed, many job boarders express the opinion that this sector faces terminal decline.

 

 

Question 6: In terms of your own company, how have the following elements of your business changed since this time last year?

 

 

The recession has seen real economic impact on the business fundamentals of many job boards. Virtually every job boarder we spoke to reported cutting back on the candidate acquisition marketing budget —some confessed to cutting all candidate acquisition marketing. However, there is still little evidence to suggest that job boarders or job board marketeers have shifted their effort and resources onto the recruiter market to any significant extent.

It will come as no surprise that most job boards still see website development as a key factor in their future: 37% of job boarders report increased website development over the last year, with 33% saying it remained the same. Only 20% reported a decrease in development.

In this Credit Crisis cash is king. Over 41% of job boarders report increases in bad debts. Some 16% say the volume of bad debts is the same, with 25% saying bad debts have decreased on the same time last year.

58% of job boarders report a decrease in staff numbers. From our conversations, which may or may not be reflective, job boarders in the larger job boards report that job cuts have tended to fall more heavily on mid-level sales and sales management staff. Front line sales staff numbers have decreased too but this seems to be largely through natural wastage.

In the smaller indpendent job boards on the other hand, low-level sales staff numbers are being reduced while experienced senior sales and management are being held on to. It will be interesting to see whether the decision by the smaller job boards to hold on to the more expensive and more experienced staff will offer a competitive advantage over the larger job boards in the years to come. Already there has been anecdotal evidence to suggest that the quality of customer service offered by some of the larger job boards has dis-improved markedly.

 

 

Question 7: How have your real and actual rates and prices changed since this time last year? For example, have you been able to effectively increase prices by removing complimentary products or have you had to decrease prices by adding more comps and freebies.

 

Obviously, with less advertising spend the market has got more competitive and job boards are seeing this translate into lower real prices. 29% of job boards report lower rates for rec cons; 25% report direct advertiser rates being down; 29% saw rates down in Recruitment Advertising agencies. That being said, significant percentages of job boarders report prices holding steady and a small percentage have even seen prices increase.

 

 

Question 8: How positively or negatively do you view the year to come as far as potential growth is concerned for each of your particular client lines?

 

 

If we look at the answers to this question it would seem that many job boarders believe that the worst of the recession is over with 47% expressing positive sentiment to growth in the year ahead; 26% expect things to remain the same; and only 13% expect a worsening market. That being said, sentiment is far from bouyant with one job boarder stating "I predict it will be marginally less bad."

Looking at the various business lines, 29% are positive about the recruitment consultancy business, with a larger 37% being neutral and only 16% of job boarders are expecting it to be worse.

Most optimism is invested in the larger corporate direct market: 62% of job boarders are positive about this, with another 16% being neutral, just 4% expressing negative views.

45% are positive about prospects for the SME business, with 25% being neutral, and 8% negative.

54% are positive about the Recruitment Advertising Agencies business, 12% saying things will stay the same and 16% negative. 

37% are positive about growth in the Public Sector business, with 25% expecting the same and only 12% feeling negative.

Non-recruitment advertising attracts the most pessimistic sentiment with just 8% seeing growth and 47% seeing business levels as the same and 4% expecting this business being lower.

 

 

Question 9: Over the next year, how do you predict the following elements of your business to change?

 

 

With expectations tending towards the positive for the year to come, many job boarders are predicting positive changes n in their own businesses too. 33% of job boarders predict marketing spend to begin to grow again —although 45% expect to see no change and 8% expect to see still further decreases. 54% expect to see increased website development. It appears that the worst of the bad debt scenario is not over with 25% expecting to see more in the year to come.

25% of job boarders anticipate staff growth in the year to come. In speaking to job boarders, most report that the majority of staff cuts have already been made. What is interesting, however, it that there does seem to be a common view that wage and salary levels for sales staff in particular will continue to decline. A number of job boarders reported, for example, that they would rather recruit sales staff from outside the online recruitment sector for sales staff. Online recruitment experience no longer seems to be a requirement for some.

 

 

Question 10: There has been much talk of "green shoots" and recovery in the wider economy. Have you seen signs of a recovery in the recruitment market yet?

 

While most job boarders predict things to improve in the year to come, and 33.3% have seen signs of "green shoots," a much greater 54.1% have not yet seen such signs. However, this survey was carried out over the quiet summer period and any small green shoots would most probably have been missed. Most job boarders are predicting good things of September/October.

 

Conclusion

It will be apparent from the survey results above that it has been a difficult year for the job board industry.  Revenues are down and competition is stiffer than ever.

The challenges going forward are many. In research we conducted elsewhere, we estimated that some 15% of UK job boards had become, what we have termed, 'Zombie Job Boards.' These are job boards that are effectively out of business but which maintain the appearance of activity by pulling jobs from the Job Posting Services like Broadbean and Idibu. Many of the smaller independent job boards will continue to struggle for survival and more will be lost. While larger job board owners may not struggle for survival, many will continue the process of rationalising their networks into core viable brands.

Interestingly, all job boarders look at this difficult time as being something of a make or break period. Most expect to see further rationalisation of the sector. But few see this as a bad thing. Most job boarders we spoke to suggested that there are still too many job boards. This continues to put pressure on both price and service to the detriment of the whole sector. With fewer sites, prices are expected to harden and service will improve. In a year's time, therefore, there might well be fewer job boards but the ones that survive will be all the better for it.

In talking to so many in the job board industry one is struck as always by the determination and passion that still exists for so many. As the online recruitment market moves becomes an established and mature industry it is good to see this passion still present.

Finally, we would like to thank job boarders who participated in our survey.

If you'd like to comment on this article, please go to the whatjobsite/blog

 

A note on the results: in some cases the percentages may not add up to 100%. The reason for this is that not not all participants answered all of the elements in all of the questions.

Published: September 2009

 

Photo: Bowie15 | Dreamstime.com

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