I had breakfast this morning in a cafe sitting next to 3 friends who were discussing their jobs and the impact of the world market downturns.  Their conversation was fascinating - easily as interesting as the newspapers I was pretending to read.

One of the three friends owned a communications business and said he was noticing a definite slow down in new work.  Another one worked for an overseas bank and has been told to have 3 weeks off while they assess their options.  The third friend was a french hair dresser.  He waved his hand dismissively and said "I am not worried, I am just cutting less off my client's hair so they have to come back to see me more often".

I couldn't help but laugh.  If only it was going to be that simple for all businesses.

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 a tightening market anything free is a bonus.  If you haven't already seen it JobX are generously giving away free access to all registered job seekers on their site.  I bet the spam bots are having a feast so hurry and get your free resumes now while you still can.

Go to the home page, click "Find Staff", enter your search terms and away you go.  It displays a clickable email address for each job seeker so you can just email them directly.

100% free.

Next time you hear someone banging on about the role of Facebook or MySpace in recruitment you might like to point them to this little video.  Very funny.

Has anyone else noticed the irony of the recently tangled Ninemsn/SEEK/eBay/CareerOne web?

- Ninemsn and SEEK are CML stable mates

- eBay sits right beside Jobs in the menu bar on Ninemsn

- eBay is in bed CareerOne.

In short we have one of Australia's largest online portals enjoying a threesome with 2 of Australia's largest job boards. 

Perfectly acceptable if not a little bemusing.

Fairfax have announced that they are cutting 550 jobs or 5% of the workforce.  Not sure if these cuts affect MyCareer but in any case it is not just Fairfax making the tough decisions.

A few other recent cut backs from around the globe:

Air Canada to cut 2000 jobs
HP cutting 5900 European jobs
Embarq to cut 500-700 jobs
Qantas to cut 1500 jobs
Chrysler plans to cut 1000 salaried jobs
Siemens to cut 16,750 jobs
Wollongong Council to cut 50 jobs
Constellation Brands to cut 350 jobs in Australian workforce
Ford announces VIC job cuts
Melbourne Uni Arts faculty face job cuts
Cadbury axes 160 jobs from Hobart factory


But it's not all bad - according to Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner 2 days ago "the employment outlook for Australia remains strong despite the large job losses announced recently at major companies...

The overall employment figures are still very robust, we anticipate that they will continue to be in good shape," he said.  "It's important to note that bad news always sells well in the media."

Media scaremongering or government propaganda?

In an economic downturn free job boards should flourish.

Advertisers know they need to keep advertising even when times are tight however constricting budgets will mean they will be looking for more cost effective solutions.

This does not include startups who hope to attract advertisers with $10 or $29 or $79 job ads.  Startup job boards heading into the next 12 months should be frantically revising their strategies because job advertisers are even less likely to be taking punts on start up job boards now, no matter what the price per ad.

A fascinating article on Interbiznet today reinforces the importance of continued advertising during a downturn.  You can read the article here but some of the highlights are:

• Maintaining a company's advertising during an economic downturn will give the image of corporate stability within a chaotic business environment, and give the advertiser the chance to dominate the advertising media

• Economic downturns reward the aggressive advertiser and penalize the timid one

• When times are good, you should advertise; when times are bad, you must advertise

Not everyone can afford to increase or even maintain advertising budgets through a downturn so this is where free job boards will become a great option for those looking to maintain branding and awareness when times are tight.

This week Jobserve have announced the launch of their new JobG8 job distribution system.

Founder Robbie Cowling says "In a nut shell JobG8 creates a network of job boards who whilst retaining their complete autonomy are able to harness the combined effect of all of the job boards in the network. And, it operates a true Pay for Performance business model so whoever it is in the network who adds the value, get the reward."

As I understand it JobG8 allows job boards to distribute their client's jobs to a range of other job boards and other web sites that jobs are advertised on.  The job advertiser pays their job board to list the job in the normal way and the job board then has the option to have the job ad sent to a broader range of job boards to increase the job's exposure.  The original job board then pays for each applicant received through the network. 

I quite like Robbie's idea in principle but there is some serious rocket science required to make this work.  For example the P4P aspect is very complex as there are potentially multiple people in the job supply chain all with their hands out for a slice of the action.  From the tone of the press release they sound very confident in their product so I guess we will know more when we see it in action in our local market. 

The Australian newspaper reported yesterday that Monster is believed to be returning to Australia

"FIVE years after it pulled out of the Australian online job market, US giant Monster Worldwide is understood to be assessing a return to Australian shores.

The company, which is in the middle of a fierce rearguard action in the US and Europe to protect its interests, is believed to have begun looking at a return to the Australian market in a bid to help its operations in Asia, where it has maintained a presence."

This rumour has been going around for a long time now and we haven't seen any real evidence that it could be true.  Nor has anyone with any credibility been quoted in support of the story.  Part of me feels this is just industry gossip that someone stirs up every few months for a bit of a laugh.

I think Monster can make a profit in Australia and I think all positions except # 1 are vulnerable.  (I know my opinion on that will be howled down but that's ok).   If Monster are happy with position 2 or 3 and believe they can run a profitable business here from that position then the rumours might just be true.  The biggest issue I see for them is pricing.  Monster's pricing in many of their overseas markets is way above what the Australian market will wear.  If they can get their prices in line with the standard $150 (ish) per job here then there is chance it could work. 

One of the biggest assets Monster have is their international network and I think there is a real interest in leveraging that here in Australia.  With candidates in most markets in high demand Australian recruiters desparately need reliable avenues for sourcing overseas candidates.  If Monster are willing to invest in this market and can get their prices right then it could be interesting....

May was a very interesting month in JobAdder as numbers of jobs, users and jobs boards continue to grow strongly across the site.  Here are a few random interesting stats.

74,560 job ads were posted through JobAdder in May

63% of all applications received came from SEEK

Job boards with the highest average number of applications per job were (in order)
1  SEEK
2  JobsJobsJobs
3  MyCareer

The job boards with highest month on month growth in average number of candidate apps per job were:
1  JobsJobsJobs
2  Linkme
3  FinancialPlanningJobs.com.au
4  Gurus.com.au

Best day for ad response : Tuesday

19 % more people applied for jobs on Sunday than on Saturday.

23 % more people applied for a job on the weekend than on a Friday

More people applied for a job between 11am and midday than in any other hour

Between 10am and 10pm the WORST time to list a job is 6pm

In what appears to be a very big move away from their original generalist job board strategy JobX are going all out with a new white label job board network.  This appears to be a move to broaden their job distribution network and apparently not so much about generating revenue as they are only charging a few hundred dollars a month for the service. 

Under the heading "What’s in it for JOBX?" in the slide show they say "We believe our technology is the best in its breed.  Sharing our leading technology with our White Label partners increases JOBX’s profile and ability to promote our jobs to a wider audience."

This is an interesting strategy and time will tell if it will pay dividends.  White label job boards are an extremely support intensive and complex business (if done properly) and I wonder what the potential impact of this could be on a startup business. 

JobX are up to some interesting stuff lately. This white label strategy appears to go hand in hand with their recent partnership with Adlogic to create a network of niche job boards that all cross post to each and share revenue.  If the concept gets off the ground job advertisers will be able to post job ads on multiple job boards from within any of the participating niche sites.  Eg from within JobX you would be able to post a job to JobX as well as to a handful of other niche sites.  This seems remarkably similar to Jobserve's JobG8 product which is also launching in June.  It will be fascinating to see how that all plays out. 

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.

The dust seems to be settling in job board land as established players and newcomers settle into their respective positions in the market.  Aside from a little jostling for second and third there isn't much new or interesting to report.  JJJ and JobX seem to have eased up on their gorilla poking, no-one has gone broke yet this year, the top end of town is settling back into normality, there doesn't seem to be anything new or exciting and all is calm.

So what is next?  Will it be something new?  Will we see consolidation?  Will MyCareer and Careerone join forces?  Will JJJ buy JobX or other tier 3s to strengthen their bid for outright 4th?  Or is everyone battoning down the hatches to see what happens in the US?

Google appears to have introduced some new embedded search functionality for certain web sites.

If you do a search for SEEK in Google you find this:



At first glance you would assume that this allows you to search for jobs on SEEK straight from Google.  Eg if I type in "IT Manager" I would assume it would go straight to IT Manager jobs on Seek.  Wrong.  All it does is return Google results that match - i.e. it does this "IT manager site:seek.com.au".

I wouldn't imagine that SEEK have paid or even requested this functionality because quite frankly it is rubbish.  Who on earth wants to do a nested Google search from within Google search results?  Show me what I intuitively expect to see or get rid of it.

A recent Hudson survey of job seeker opinions is getting plenty of coverage around town today.  You can read a detailed breakdown of the study here on Shortlist but there are a couple of very interesting points that I wanted to comment on...

1. Job Seekers want more details in job ads. 
   "It showed a growing frustration with job ads among candidates, with 45% of respondents saying they lacked sufficient detail for the candidate to make a decision. This included vague descriptions of roles, omitting the employer's name and lack of salary information."
   
   There are only 3 reasons I can think of that might explain why a recruiter wouldn't write a detailed, descriptive job ad. (i) You don't know much about the job (ii) you are too lazy to spend the extra 5 minutes (iii) you are being driven by unreasonable KPIs that don't give you the time you need to write a good ad.
   
   If you are guilty of (i) or (ii) then the good news is you can easily turn this around.  You will make more placements and more money by spending the time to understand your roles and write detailed ads.
   If your problem is (iii) then go and find yourself a new job.  There are plenty of them going..


2. Your web site is critical to your success.  "The research showed that more than half of all candidates (55%) now go directly to a company's website during their jobsearch process."
   
   Intuitively you would expect that people check out your web site when they are considering working for you or using your agency, but did you realise it was more than half?   These findings should spur all recruiters and employers to re-examine their web sites.  What does your web site say about you?  Would you work for you based on your web site?


3. Poorly written job ads are harming your future chances with today's passive candidates.  "Nine out of 10 (88%) candidates used the major job boards as a research channel during their job search process, and 83% also used newspapers."
   
   When writing your job ads bear in mind that job seekers and future job seekers are using your ads to research the job market.  In so doing they are forming opinions about you.


4. Niche job boards are vital.  "54% of candidates used specialist industry job search sites as a research channel."
   
   Are you using specialist niche job sites to advertise your roles?  This report proves that the global move to specialist job sites is alive and well in Australia.  There are some great specialist job sites in Australia and you owe it to yourself to try them.

How do you go on these 4 points?

Sources today are reporting that News Ltd and Fairfax Digital are joining forces to form a new job board called MyOne.com.au.  MyOne will bring together all the best features of CareerOne and MyCareer to form a potent combination.  The new business is rumoured to be adopting the slogan "simply second" - a humorous but appropriate spin on MyCareer's "simply jobs" tag line.

Recruiters are today breathing a collective sigh of relief as the new site will put to bed the endless squabbles over who is in second place and who is third.  MyOne will be in an unassailable second position and are said to be happy to accept that position till death do they part.

Sources say job listings on the new web site are expected to be priced at around $1 an ad. 








(this story may or may not be fictitious. Please do not stampede us with requests to have the new job board enabled on your JobAdder account)

The Australian Domain Administrator (auDA) has today announced a further relaxing of the regulation that has made the Australian .com.au domain space so successful.

The new policy means you will effectively be able to buy and sell Australian domain names willy nilly.  Previously you were not allowed to sell a domain name (although it did happen) unless it was part of a business or asset sale.

Unfortunately this is very bad news and further weakens the domain regulation in Australia by opening up .com.au domains to even further abuse by domain name resellers, squatters, traffic rings and other bottom dwellers.

Clearly auDA are bowing to pressure from vocal and influential domain registrars and other people who stand to gain from the changes.  The average internet user in Australia will be disadvantaged by this move as there will be a massive increase in valuable domain names now sitting idly for sale, unused, or covered in Google adwords.  Unfortunately the average internet user doesn't know about nor participate in domain policy making.  This move is in line with auDA's history of continued weakening of regulation and I wonder why they don't just cut to the chase and make it the same as the US.  What a runaway success that has been.

For those intersted the key features of the new policy are as follows (quoted from here):  My comments are in red.

• it will not be allowable to register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to a third party  (almost impossible to police or prove. And is if auDA cares less)
• registrants will not be able to transfer their domain name for the first 6 months after the initial registration (this does not apply to domain names that have been renewed or previously transferred) (so what?)
• after 6 months, registrants will be able to offer their domain name for sale/transfer by any means (eg. by listing the domain name for sale on a domain brokerage website, advertising the domain name for sale in a newspaper, or contacting a prospective buyer directly)  (key words here are "by any means")
• registrant transfers will be processed by the registrar of record using a standard transfer form, and the registrar may charge a transfer fee
• parties to a transfer will be asked to disclose the sale method and price, on a voluntary and confidential basis, so that auDA may collect aggregated statistical data to improve access to market information for buyers and sellers.  (yeah right. Why on earth would you volunteer that information?)

yep this is my dummy spat on the floor

There is an interesting post this morning on the Onrec blog about JobSpeed - a new IT job board run by a consortium of recruiters. 

Job boards with ties to recruitment agencies will always be treated with suspicion, especially in a market spoiled for choice.  It is not uncommon for a job board to have ties to a recruitment agency however for obvious reasons most normally go to great lengths to hide the fact.

Click here to read the conversation....

Would you fork over $250 or $500 for the right to interview a candidate?

This very interesting approach is being trialled by US site Notchup and from all accounts is generating quite a bit of interest.  The concept as I understand it is that the candidate registers their profile, specifies an amount that they would accept for an interview (generally a few hundred dollars) and then employers can get in touch and pay the fee if they would like to speak to the candidate.

Clearly there are a number of potential flaws in the system, such as candidates bonusing their experience to drive up the interview price, non genuine candidates interviewing for beer money, or genuine candidates who are no longer active.

Potential flaws aside this is a very interesting approach in a candidate short market.  Would you pay $250 to interview a candidate?  I think I would.  I would pay $250 without hesitation if I was sure that (a) the candidate was genuine and (b) that they knew enough about my company or role to be able to qualify their interest before I paid the fee.