The Employment Report

Everyone knows the typical New Year’s Resolutions: lose weight, get out of debt, quit smoking and/or drinking, get organized and get a new job. If you’re one of the many that has resolved to find a new job, then your next move will probably be to post a resume on one of the many job boards available on the Internet. Some are more popular than others; some have been around longer than others. How well these sites provide results depends on how well you use them.

Let’s run down the ten or so more popular sites and review their history. In the future, we’ll post blogs on getting the most out of these and newer sites.

Monster

Monster is one of the largest, most well-known job sites out there. It’s one of the 20 most visited Web sites out of the 100 million worldwide, according to comScore Media Metrics (November 2006). Monster went live in 1994 and was one of the first of these sites, with most of the material compiled from newspaper listings.

In 1999, the merger of The Monster Board (TMB) and Online Career Center (OCC) occurred; these sites were two of the first and most popular career web sites on the Internet. Monster has a powerful job search engine which those seeking work can use to find job offers that match their skills and locales (present or preferred).

Today, Monster is the largest job search engine in the World, claiming over a million job postings at any time, over 73 million resumes in the database and over 42 million job seekers per month. With approximately 5,000 employees in 26 countries, the company has a powerful global brand and unparalleled international reach. Monster is the only pan-European employment website and is growing fast in developing markets such as India.

CareerBuilder

NetStart, Inc. began in 1995, later to be changed to CareerBuilder, Inc. Careerbuilder.com was developed in 1996 along with TeamBuilder software. In 1997, TeamBuilder Online was developed and was the first browser-based recruiting application to accelerate the hiring process, launching with 16 interactive partners and reaching the 1,000 customer mark. The company proved its sustained growth in 1999, completing its Initial Public Offering and was awarded its first technology patent.

Over the next few years, CareerBuilder.com would launch their Résumé Database, innovative HTML functions, and personalization features as well as secure partnerships with media giants like Knight Ridder and Tribune.

In 2005, CareerBuilder.com’s Super Bowl debut was a resounding success, drawing more than 150 million media impressions and numerous awards. All three of CareerBuilder.com’s chimp advertisements aired during the Super Bowl earned a spot on the Top 10 list in USA TODAY’s Ad Meter. In addition, one spot was named “Funniest Commercial of the Year” in TBS’s annual poll and was included in CBS’s “The Forty Greatest Super Bowl Commercials” special.

Microsoft took a minority equity stake in CareerBuilder in 2007, opening the door to new opportunities. In addition, CareerBuilder extended - and expanded - its strategic alliance with MSN, fueling a faster expansion into global markets. CareerBuilder will continue to be the exclusive content provider for the MSN Careers channel in the U.S. through 2013 and is now serving in this role for key MSN international sites as well.

HotJobs

HotJobs.com was founded on February 20, 1997 as HotJobs, Inc. On September 23, 1998, HotJobs, Inc.changed its name to HotJobs.com, Ltd. In 1999, the Company established an international presence with the incorporation of HotJobs.com Australia Pty, Ltd. in Australia. The site’s suite of services also includes its proprietary Softshoe recruiting software, WorkWorld job fairs and online advertising and consulting services.

The company startled the advertising world in 1999 when it bought a $1.6 million commercial during Super Bowl XXXIII, considering that its total revenues were approximately $2.5 million. It proved to be a very savvy investment, as “over $25 million” in publicity was generated as a consequence. Immediately following the commerical’s airing, hotjobs’ servers were overwhelmed with requests, and this incident later served as the basis for a commercial for IBM. The company went public in late 1999.

Craigslist

Craigslist began in 1995 as a simple email list of San Francisco events, compiled by Craig Newmark. He now works full time in the customer service department and makes regular media appearances; as it has become one of the most popular local classifieds and forum sites (jobs, housing, goods and services, romance, local activities, advice, etc.), supporting 450 cities worldwide (including all US cities per user requests).

Incorporated as a for-profit in 1999, craigslist now employs 25 employees who work out of a San Francisco Victorian, still adopting a non-corporate culture. The site supports operations by charging a below-market fee for job ads in seven cities and for brokered apartment listings in NYC. Job ads ate $25 for NYC, LA, Boston, Seattle and San Diego and $75 in SF.

The site has more than 8 billion page views, 1.5 million new job listings 25 million new classifieds each montheBay acquired 25 percent of the equity in craigslist from a former shareholder in August, 2004.

Dice

Dice is a leading career website for technology and engineering professionals, and the companies that seek to employ them, in the United States. Their mission is to help customers source and hire the most qualified technology and engineering professionals and to provide those professionals with the best job opportunities in their respective fields. Dice.com was re-launched in 1999, but Dice Holdings, Inc, has a 16-year track record in meeting the ever-changing needs of companies and recruiters, specializing their focus and exposure to highly-skilled technology and engineering professionals enable employers to reach hard-to-find, experienced candidates.

Job.com

Job.com, headquartered in Fredericksburg VA is an online full service career portal that ranks as the 4th most visited career destination in the Career Services category in December, according to independent research conducted by comscore/Media Metrix. Job.com specializes in helping employers and recruiters hire qualified employees, while providing job seekers with a variety of career and job search enhancing services, products and resources. With over 4.7 million registered members, Job.com’s candidates represent every state in the U.S. and come from 70 different disciplines ranging from IT to Sales to Executive Management.

Founded in 2001, Job.com, Inc. owns and operates one of the fastest growing career sites, Job.com. The site enables employers to connect with potential employees through the use of its online job board and resume database. Job.com is the first major nationwide job board to offer unlimited resume searching, and unlimited Job Ad Posting, for one low flat rate.

Linked In

LinkedIn is an online business network designed to help professionals find jobs, people, and services providers. The company has grown to reach more than 11 million users nationwide since its inception in 2003. LinkedIn is free to join; it also offers paid accounts and sells advertising. The company is backed by venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital, Greylock, and Bessemer Venture Partners, as well as individuals such as Marc Andreessen (co-founder of Netscape and chairman of Opsware), Joe Kraus (co-founder of Excite), and Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal).

As of November 2007, it had more than 16 million registered users, spanning 150 industries and more than 400 economic regions (as classified by the service).

Jobster

Jobster was founded in February 2004 by Jason Goldberg and Phillip Bogle. It is located in Seattle, Washington and is backed by the investors Ignition Partners, Trinity Ventures, Mayfield Fund and Reed Elsevier Ventures. Jobster makes money through its targeted job advertising services for employers.

In August 2005 Jobster acquired WorkZoo.com, a job meta-search engine founded by Mark Maunder, which was integrated into Jobster’s home page. In 2006, Jobster acquired GoJobby.com and Recruiting.com. Jobster has since re-launched Recruiting.com as a Digg-like recruiting portal. In January 2007, Jobster became the exclusive job search partner for Facebook and hosts the Career Center on Facebook.com.

Employment Guide

The Employment Guide was founded in 1997 when its previous owner, Trader Publishing Company, bought The Detroit Employment Guide. Since then, the company has expanded and has print publications in over 75 metropolitan areas, in addition to hosting over 250 job fairs annually. Dominion Enterprises, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, now owns The Employment Guide and is a media and information services company for employment, real estate, recreation, and industrial markets in the United States.

The Employment Guide is the largest publisher of skilled and hourly employment advertising nationwide, with almost 80 weekly recruitment publications in over 75 major markets. Together with its online Web site, The Employment Guide targets hourly, entry-level to mid-management employees.

The weekly publications can be found in green boxes on city streets and display racks inside grocery and convenience stores, as well as in job placement centers and libraries. Job seekers can log onto EmploymentGuide.com to research positions available nationwide, as well as fill out an online application. In addition to job listings, The Employment Guide issues surveys in order to collect data about skilled and hourly job seekers.

The Ladders

TheLadders.com is an online publisher of job leads for senior level executives. Along with a weekly career and job search advice newsletter, the site features a searchable database of jobs for professionals making more than $100,000 a year. Members receive advice from executive recruiters, hiring managers, professional resume writers and executive career coaches, as well as access to approximately 7,000 jobs each week, which are hand-screened by experts.

TheLadders.com was founded in 2003 by Marc Cenedella after his tenure as senior VP, Finance and Operations, at hotjobs.com. The site inverts the traditional model for job search engines by allowing employers and recruiters to post job listings free of charge, and then hand-sorting each listing for accuracy and authenticity. Unlike other job sites, TheLadders.com is member-funded, resulting in a highly-qualified, targeted candidate pool searching a huge database of high-end jobs. With over 900,000 readers, it is by far the largest job site of its kind.

Six Figure Jobs

6FigureJobs, founded in July of 2003, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Workstream Inc. and is a premier executive career management site where high profile executives and senior-level professionals go to post their resumes with full confidentiality and search through thousands of $100K+ executive and management level opportunities. 6FigureJobs provides exclusive job postings from renowned corporate recruiters and executive search firms who select from our pre-qualified talent database of over 500,000 highly skilled executives and experienced professionals.

6FigureJobs allows employers and recruiters to efficiently post their six figure job opportunities, search resumes, and target and hire qualified, pre-screened, senior-level candidates.