Are LinkedIn, Monster killing the recruitment industry?
by Andrew Moran (Guest contributor/Digital Journalist)
Since the growth of LinkedIn, a social networking website for people in professional job positions, many have pegged the question: is the recruiting industry dead? As the employment pool grows and the job vacancies shrink, companies rely on recruitment.
Business Insider published an article last spring that discussed how the headhunting industry, otherwise known as recruitment, was dying. Through websites such as Monster,LinkedIn and Workopolis, companies can find top talents and workers can find the best positions that suit their skills for free.
Indeed, the Internet has forced industries to evolve, while also creating a scarcity in other fields. Before the days of LinkedIn, businesses had to pay headhunters to discover the ideal worker. Nowadays, as these websites offer free services, companies can simply do it themselves without paying an exorbitant fee.
“In November 2008, in one week’s time, I lost 50 job orders. Everything just shut down. I don’t think it ever really came back, or will ever come back,” said Andrea Sobel, a former headhunter for more than two decades, in an interview with the business publication. “I think companies, in the meantime, have pretty much figured out how to do it without agencies, because of the internet mainly.”
With the unemployment rate in the United States hovering just under eight percent and an enormous phalanx of workers seeking jobs, companies may resort to recruitment agencies again in the future.
Canon Recruiting Group, a recruitment firm for senior banking, IT, medical, insurance and technical professionals, has, perhaps surprisingly, become one of the nation’s fastest growing companies. Founded in 1980 by Tim Grayem, the California-based business has been recognized as one of the top human resources companies in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and sales have grown 584 percent during a three-year period from 2009 to 2011.T
he award-winning company, which maintains 500+ employees, notes that it specializes in hard-to-find and hard-to-fill positions, something that LinkedIn may very well lack because it has, according to its own statistics, more than 200 million registered users in 200 nations and territories.
Aside from recruiting, it also offers staffing solutions, consulting services, such as outsourcing and mergers and acquisitions, and payroll functions – it claims to have never missed a payroll in the company’s history.
For those looking for work, its website consists of a job board that lists professional employment opportunities in the U.S., such as project manager, mortgage closer, government and conventional underwriters and mechanical engineer.
Perhaps a job board is easy to search on and navigate and there is a pool of talent waiting to be tapped, but there isn’t a personalized touch, a trait that recruiting agencies are known to specialize in. Even if budgets at firms are tight, utilizing recruiting experts may pay dividends in the future with an array of professional, experienced, talented and skilled employees to carry out the necessary tasks.
As ERE.net writes: “LinkedIn needs recruitment to survive. Despite views to the contrary, recruitment companies still contribute the lion’s share of its revenue. LinkedIn is undoubtedly negatively impacting parts of the recruitment market. But it’s not the third-party agencies. It’s the job boards.”
This article originally appeared on Digital Journal [Link]
Digital circulation for U.S. newspapers rose 63%
U.S. newspaper circulation struggled with only a tiny increase in March 2012, compared to a year earlier, but digital circulation surged by 63 percent, according to the latest figures from the the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Digital circulation now accounts for 14.2 percent of newspapers’ total circulation mix, and note the term refers to tablet or smartphone apps, PDF replicas, metered or restricted-access websites, or e-reader editions. The figure in March 2011 was 8.66 percent.
Average daily circulation increased .68 percent, covering 628 papers.
The Grey Lady was one of the clear winners from this report. The New York Times enjoyed a 73 percent surge in circulation to 1.58 million, with digital readership of 807,026 overtaking print circulation of 779,731. The Times remained the top Sunday newspaper with total average circulation of just over two million, including more than 737,000 digital.
Coming out as one of the top losers, The Washington Post faced a 7.8 percent circulation decrease, a trend closely mirrored by the Detroit Free Press (6.27 percent decrease).
AFP writes, “US newspapers have been grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online. But more newspapers are developing models for paid online subscriptions or apps for tablets or phones.”
New Republic tears down its paywall
U.S. political magazine The New Republic announced today they will be droppings its paywall, offering its online content free to visitors.
A blog post on the magazine’s website wrote: “This decision is in line with our desire to enable new readers to discover and share the best of what TNR’s writers produce each day.”
The post emphasizes visitors will only be able to access current content; the archives will only be available to subscribers. Also, subscribers – digital or print – will be the only ones who can comment on the site.
The Atlantic Wire writes despite its reputation in political circles and its impressive 100-year history, “the magazine has struggled to make money, cutting back ad pages in the paper edition while trying to increase subscribers on the web.”
It would be unreasonable to assume The New Republic made this move to answer the New York Times’ recent decision to restrict access to its online content, but with such strong political content on both sites, it wouldn’t be wrong to suggest the two are competing news outlets.