"Online vacancies and CV uploads rise" says Evenbase study

05 September 2012 10:29

The average number of vacancies advertised has risen from 5.7 to 7.7 per business, according to the latest quarterly recruitment review from Evenbase. The study also revealed that CV uploads grew by 9% this quarter.

The global digital recruitment group said that the study indicates "a welcome boost in recruitment compared to the spring".

It added: "While not all businesses are hiring, those that are, seem to be hiring more people – the average number of vacancies advertised per business jumped significantly this quarter, from 5.7 to 7.7 .

"Of the business types surveyed, more SoHo businesses (10-49 employees) are trying to fill vacancies this quarter, whilst SMEs and corporates remain more cautious in their hiring activity.

"The percentage of online vacancies reported also grew, from 54% last quarter to 70% in the current research and 9% more employers reported using job boards than newspapers ads, the biggest gap we've seen yet. These are clear indications that the recruitment industry is placing more faith in online resources and is reflected by online job boards continuing to be the most popular resource with both job seekers and businesses."

However, the study also showed that the size of the business had a big impact on the favoured recruitment methods. For example, SoHos reported a reliance on personal and social networks, their most used method by some distance and almost twice the number reported in the corporate world, which favours recruitment agencies.

This quarter's most visible trend for candidates was a marked upturn in the number of people uploading CVs to job boards as CV uploads grew by 9% in the quarter; demonstrating more confidence in the power of job boards rather than direct approaches to get job seekers the results they need.

Mike Wall, MD of Evenbase's job boards division, comments; "In difficult economic times, both businesses and candidates want to keep things simple. Just as candidates rate CV uploading highly over innovations such as applying for jobs via social media, businesses are focused on no-frills services that they know get the job done, rather than invest time and money in added extras. The basic features actually being used by businesses seem to have taken a slight upturn, with vacancy advertising at its highest level since last summer and the use of job boards to display print adverts nearly doubling from 6% to 11%."

Mr Wall added: "Although some companies appear to be advertising significantly more vacancies than they did last quarter, their efforts are not being rewarded with a corresponding lift in mood among job seekers. It will be interesting to see if a delayed response to the vacancy increase combined with the national mood boost from the Olympics will see an uplift in candidate confidence in the next Evenbase Quarterly Recruitment Review."