My Recruiting Blog

With the housing market floundering and other economic indicators pointing towards a recession, many are beginning to be concerned about the immediate future of US employment. If circumstances continue then the number of jobs available in the country will likely drastically decrease as businesses try to maintain profits through cutting back on how many employees are on the payroll.

Current job listings on the internet may already be showing the beginning of this. Monster Worldwide Inc.'s dropped 4.8 percent in January to $27>25 a share. According to BusinessWeek, this happened shortly "after an analyst downgraded the job Web site operator and the company's January employment index showed a decline in online recruitment among employers."

According to Monster, it's index declined nine points in January, ending up at 160. Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel says that this decline in job listings, increase recession concerns, and execution risks from new management prompted the decrease in share pricing. He went on to say that "while one month does not make a trend, the data suggests a meaningful slowdown on growth and could represent an issue on profitability given the higher margins in the North America market."

The index, which measures posted jobs online and availability, showed significant decreases in the number of positions listed with the site in 20 of the 23 industries it monitors. Posted jobs online available to those in the finance and insurance industries dropped 21 points in the month of January, which Monster representatives says reflects the subprime mortgage crisis. When compared to the previous year the decrease in job listings was 5 percent from 2007s 168 points. The index is said to have a error margin of plus or minus 1.05 percent.

This decrease in the number of positions posted on the internet could make finding a job online more difficult. Employers who do continue to recruit through the web will have a larger pile of resumes to sort through, meaning higher competition for positions for jobseekers. Since approximately only 20 percent of available positions make it to online job listings it is best for those looking for new employers to pair their web search with more traditional methods in order to find less publicly advertised opportunities.

Labels: Job Search