Job seekers are going online
Online recruitment website CareerJunction maintains regular statistics to track online trends and was ranked tenth amongst South African Websites in terms of unique visitors, fourth in terms of page impressions, and first among employment websites, according to the Online Publishers Association (OPA) August 2005 report.
Online recruitment serves as a facilitation mechanism between recruitment agencies and career seekers. Resumes are created online and kept in a database where agencies can search them and use technology to match with specific jobs. Further tools include, job alerts by email, career advice and application tracking for career seekers as well as job advertising & profiling, online interviewing and resume alerts for recruiters.
Online recruitment is being utilised by career seekers to search for jobs and by recruiters to find candidates more than ever before. A comparison of unique visitors to the CareerJunction site, from August 2004 to 2005, shows a 40% increase.
The figure for unique visitors during August 2005 rounds off at 205 000 (as validated by ACNielsen/Netratings). In terms of page impressions, this translates into a 52% increase resulting in 8 976 225 page impressions during August.
In August 2005 CareerJunction attracted over 9 000 new resumes which is a 62% increase from last year August, and advertised over 20 000 jobs on behalf of its clients, which is an 80% increase in the jobs advertised in August 2004.
The increase in career seekers posting their resumes and recruiters advertising their jobs is a strong indication that both these parties are becoming more au fait with the benefits of online recruitment as a means to find jobs and place candidates.
Comparing the period June to August, looking at both 2004 and 2005, yields the following results:
An increase in the jobs advertised but a slight decrease in the pool of talent available suggests a need for more candidates in the Financial, Engineering, Manufacturing, Production & Trades and Telecommunication sectors.
An increase in the pool of talent available but a slight decrease in the amount of jobs advertised suggests a need for more jobs in the FMCG, Retail & Wholesale, Sales, Admin and Office Support and Human Resources sectors.
In 2004 the level of careers advertised matched the level of resumes closely; however in 2005 the amount of junior candidates outweighed the amount of jobs available for them, indicating a slight decrease in entry-level positions.
The number of affirmative action (AA) candidates that make use of online recruitment is a key statistic within the context of South Africa's emphasis on employment equity.
October 2004 saw AA candidates comprising 76.65% of the total database. In August 2005, the figure grew to 81.97% of the total database.
