Survey of 37,000 reveals success at finding a job online

More than half the people interviewed for a job they found on the internet have been successful, according to a poll of 37,000 online job seekers, the largest ever.

The National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS) 2007 of 27 leading job boards, including fish4jobs, JobServe and
Monster.co.uk, confirms that the number of people getting jobs online continues to rise.

The survey provides a detailed snapshot of how the UKís 12 million online job seekers search and apply for work. A key trend is the use of mobile phones with internet access - enabling those looking for work to search on the move.

The 2007 results, which can be downloaded at www.noras.co.uk, show:

56 per cent of those interviewed for a job they found online, successfully got the job, up significantly from 44 per cent three years ago.

emailing a CV is the most popular way to apply for a job (38 per cent), followed by completing an online application form (31 per cent).

62 per cent use the internet every day.

52 per cent have a mobile phone with internet access.

the average job seeker earns 31,600 and visits five sites when looking for a job

62 per cent are looking for full-time permanent work, 18 per cent full-time contract or interim positions and 13 per cent part-time permanent.

65 per cent have broadband access and 17 per cent have a wireless network at home.

The UK online recruitment market continues to grow. It was 103 million for the first half of 2006 compared with the 2005 total of 200 million and 120 million in 2004.

Tim Elkington, managing director of Enhance Media which manages NORAS, said: ìOnline recruitment is more successful than ever before. More people are applying for jobs and getting interviews and of these, over half are now going on to get a job. Analysis of the results shows the market is maturing and job seekers are becoming more familiar with the job boards that best suit them. Employers are also becoming more adept at knowing where to place their vacancies online.

ìItís interesting to see the large number of jobseekers who have mobile phones with internet access. The next challenge for employers will be to make sure they keep in touch with these jobseekers by taking advantage of the latest technology.î

Enhance Media now has comparable data going back six years, taken from interviews with over 100,000 online job seekers. NORAS collects two sets of data from leading online recruitment sites ñ demographic data detailing the audience profile of each site and unique user numbers showing the size of each siteís audience, audited by ABC ELECTRONIC.

Tim Elkington says: ìThe results enable recruiters to differentiate between the online recruitment sites and choose the one with the audience that best matches their recruitment needs. They can use the results to monitor the growth of online recruitment and track the changing habits of people searching the web for jobs.î

Richard Foan, managing director at ABC ELECTRONIC said: ìThe online recruitment sites that participate in NORAS make it exceptionally easy for their clients to compare the traffic generated, through their commitment to independently audited traffic figures to industry agreed standards. The trust delivered by this certification is essential to encourage recruitment advertisers to further increase their use of websites as the medium of choice, demonstrating to the recruitment market as a whole that online is a powerful recruitment tool.î

ìNORAS is now in its sixth year, and continues to provide a solid foundation for the online recruitment sector to grow.î

Stephen Carr, manager of recruitment sourcing and processes at T-Mobile, said: ìThe internet is central to T-Mobileís recruitment strategy. It allows us to attract and communicate effectively with a broad range of candidates, from head office to retail staff. We find research such as NORAS invaluable to help us understand and take advantage of this rapidly evolving and changing market. Weíre also excited about this yearís findings on the potential for mobile technology to play a greater part in the recruitment process.î

Participating job boards were:
AccountancyAgeJobs
Blue Line Careers
Brand Republic Jobs
changeboard
eFinancialCareers.com
Eteach
exec-appointments.com
fish4Jobs
GAAPweb
Grocerjobs
GuardianJobs
InPharm Jobs
jobs.ac.uk
JobServe
JobsWales
LondonCareers.net
mad.co.uk
ManchesterOnline
Monster.co.uk
Prospects.ac.uk
s1Jobs
Scotcareers
SECSintheCity.com
thecareerengineer.com
The Lawyer
Times Online ñ jobs
TipTopJob

Among the most visited sites were: fish4jobs with 2,532,252 unique users; Monster.co.uk 2,237,016; eFinancialCareers.com 1,124,978; Guardian Jobs 725,943; Prospects.ac.uk 579,537; JobServe 571,240.

Results are available to download free at www.noras.co.uk from January 29.

A data interrogation tool ñ NORAS interactive ñ is also available to registered users and allows recruiters to compare how many candidates each site can deliver against their chosen target audience.