According to Google Trends (and let's face it - they should know) the average Australian's heirarchy of needs is:

1. Sex
2. Jobs
3. Cars
4. Property
5. Money

There are 3 particularly interesting things about this for me.

1. In the last 4 years 2008 is the first year when "jobs" searches have outranked "cars" searches. 

2. South Australians and Tasmanians search for cars more than jobs. If you've been to either place I guess you will know why.  The first car I drove was my Mum's orange Torana in Adelaide.

3. People search for sex less in the ACT than anywhere else in Australia.  Is that related to legalised porn, a largely government population or the fact that it is so damn cold?

Today's papers report that SEEK have just purchased a 10% stake in Jobstreet - one of South East Asia's largest job boards.

Following on from their recent investment in Zhaopin this move further reinforces SEEK's plans to be a major player in the Asian region.

In going through the July stats on the weekend we were pleasantly surprised to see the number of job ads distributed by JobAdder was up by 54% in July.

JobAdder has been growing steadily month on month since launch but a leap in significant new client acquisitions in June resulted in a big increase in the number of job ads distributed in July.

Some of you may have seen the Shortlist article last week but for those who didn't we are extremely pleased to announce that we have successfully finalised the sale of our Now Hiring job board business to Counting Jobs Pty Ltd. 

Last week's Shorty article sums it up pretty well so you can click here to download the article.

Our reasons for this move were simple.  We want to focus all our financial and human resources on JobAdder.com.

We are extremely fortunate to have created 2 successful businesses in their own rights - JobAdder and the Now Hiring job boards.  As each business continues to grow it was clear we had a choice to make - ramp up resources on the job board business to accommodate the growth or find a new home for it. 

All things considered it made most sense for us to find a good home for the job board business and focus all our energies on JobAdder.  JobAdder is growing rapidly and we are very excited to be able to now give it all the attention it deserves.  In just one week since the sale was finalised there have been a whole raft of improvements made including the integration of over 6 new job boards.  JobAdder customers will benefit from a dramatic increase in functionality and job board integrations and as a business we feel the timing is strategically perfect.

As the Shortlist article states, we are absolutely delighted to have the Counting Jobs team take over the Now Hiring brand and our job board babies.  We have worked tirelessly on the job boards for 5 years so it was really important to us that they go to a business who understands job boards as well as we do and who shares our vision and passion for the business.  Mike Thomas built his first job site with his own hands and knows intimately what it takes to make a job board business successful in this market.  Mike and his team have a clear focus on the job at hand and have some very big plans so watch that space carefully!

Please also note that we are changing our company name from Now Hiring Pty Ltd to JobAdder Pty Ltd and Counting Jobs will be taking over the  Now Hiring name and brand.   Please update your address books as our email addresses will now be @jobadder.com. 

So JobAdder customers and prospective customers, hold on to your hats as we take the snake to a whole new level.