Internet the ëonly choiceí for an increasing number of job seekers

The largest ever online recruitment survey shows the number of people exclusively using the internet to look for a job has doubled since 2007.

The annual National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS), published today, surveyed over 50,000 online job seekers between September and December 2008. The results show that 1 in 7 online job seekers now use only the internet to look for jobs – a figure up from 1 in 11 a year ago and more than doubling the figure of 1 in 16 in 2007.

In addition, the NORAS results show that the internet continues to be an effective medium for job seekers, with one in four online job seekers having obtained a job that they searched for, found and applied to online.

Giles Guest, managing director of Enhance Media – the online recruitment research and strategy company that produces NORAS commented – ìNORAS 2009 shows that the internet is becoming an increasingly important and dominant channel in recruitment. The year on year results also show that the downturn is accelerating the move towards online hiring as companies look to save costs wherever possible during the recruitment cycle.î

The survey – now in its eighth year – also reveals that online job seekers are increasingly turning to new technologies to look for jobs, with one in ten saying that they have used a smart phone or blackberry to look for a job. Guest commented ìJob seekers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and using all the online tools available to them to find new roles.î

Online job seekers were also found to be willing to improve their skills and qualifications in order to get the right job, with 78% saying they would be prepared to take a course or qualification to further their career.

The NORAS 2009 results are available to download free at www.noras.co.uk from 23rd February 2009. An interactive tool is also available free and combines NORAS audience data with independent ABCe audited web site traffic figures to enable recruiters to compare job sites and choose the right job board for their recruitment needs.

ABCe have worked with Enhance Media for all of the eight annual NORAS surveys and Richard Foan, managing director stated ìWe are delighted to continue our work with Enhance Media and support of NORAS and welcome the commitment of recruitment websites to delivering on-going third party, independently audited web traffic data to industry agreed standards.î

The 31 sites participating in NORAS 2009 are:

Brand Republic Jobs
CIMA MY JOBS
Employment4Students
eFinancialCareers.com
Eteach.com
exec-appointments.com
executivesontheweb.com
fish4Jobs
Grapevine Jobs
Grocer Jobs
Guardian Jobs
Gumtree
GAAPweb
jobs.ac.uk
Just Engineers
Jobsgopublic
Jobs.telegraph.co.uk
LondonCareers.net
Law Society Gazette
Public Jobs Direct
PlanetRecruit
Prospects.ac.uk
s1jobs
SecsintheCity.com
The Career Engineer
tesjobs
The Jobs Mine
Times Online – Jobs
Third Sector Jobs
Totally Legal
Workcircle