I read an article this morning (Web Searches Cut Unemployment Duration by 25%) in the Wall Street Journal about the "The popularity of online job searching" and how this job search tactic "exploded over a decade".
I agree that searching for a job online has grown in popularity, hence the article stated "Some 74% of young, unemployed workers job hunted on the Internet in 2008-2009, up from 24% who did the same in 1998 and 2000".
However, I would recommend to any job seeker that they should not place their hopes on solely finding a job online, for the Internet is not the panacea in finding employment. Instead, a job seeker should integrate online searches into an overall job search strategy.
In my opinion, the best job search results stem from not only using the Internet, but also conducting effective networking, cold-calling, and volunteering.
Nevertheless, a good resource to read to help improve your online job search is Richard Bolles' Job Hunting Online.
AJH
[See full article below]
--------------------------------
Web Searches Cut Unemployment Duration by 25%
September 29, 2011
By Sara Murray
Job searching on the Internet cuts the average unemployment spell by 25%, according to a new report.
The bonus from online job searching reverses a trend from more than a decade ago when searching for jobs online was either ineffective or counterproductive, according to a study by economics professors Peter Kuhn, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Hani Mansour, at the University of Colorado, Denver. A 2004 study showed workers who searched for jobs on the Internet suffered longer durations of unemployment.
“We speculate that significant improvements in technology over this period, ranging from better online job sites to network externalities associated with greater overall Internet penetration itself, might explain this change over time,” according to the study.
Online job searching tends to be most effective in reducing unemployment spells when job-seekers use it to contact friends and relatives, send out resumes or applications and look at ads. Contacting friends and relatives tended to be more rare among those searching for jobs, but it was also highly effective.
There was little effect of online job searching on wage growth though, an indication that Internet searches help jobless Americans find new positions faster – but not necessarily better positions.
The popularity of online job searching exploded over a decade. Some 74% of young, unemployed workers job hunted on the Internet in 2008-2009, up from 24% who did the same in 1998 and 2000.
“Simply because the Internet now connects each worker to many more firms (and vice versa) in several new and low-cost ways, it may have become a more powerful tool in the job search process than it was a decade ago,” according to the researchers.
# # #
