Job Search Engine Guide

2007 Top Sites for Job Search

   

Who will be first?  Which of the following fifteen sites provides the best combination of content, features, and ease-of-use for active job search?

   

To make my list of 2007 competitors, a site must provide national coverage of the job market and contain ads for most types of jobs in the economy – for simplicity, let’s refer to these competitors as general job sites.

   

As you can imagine, with 40,000+ job sites to choose from, there are many excellent niche sites that can be better choices than any of these fifteen general sites in certain cases – e.g. theLadders in the $100k+ market, and Dice in the tech market, to name only two.  However, as good as some of these niche boards are, their ad volume is often quite low, so even dedicated niche board users will often watch one or more general job sites when actively searching for a new job.

   

So which of the following general job sites is best in 2007?  That’s what we’ll find out by challenging the competitors to a series of tests, with the poorest performer in each test eliminated from further competition.  In a competition like this, it’s just as important for each competitor to have few weaknesses as it is to have strengths.  May the best site win.

   

   

First challenge – Find jobs for ten hypothetical jobseekers in Tulsa, OK.  Who wins?  Who goes home?  Stay tuned.

   

   

The Big Three

CareerBuilder

HotJobs

Monster

   

Vertical Integrators

Indeed

Oodle

SimplyHired

   

General Classifieds

Craigslist

GoogleBase

LiveExpo

   

Federally Endorsed*

America’s Job Exchange

JobCentral

Jobs.com

   

Next-Gen Search

GetTheJob

Jobster

Just-Posted

   

   

* In preparation for the shutdown of America’s Job Bank, the Department of Labor published Training and Employment Notice 27-06, which included a copy of a Federal Register Notice outlining the criteria for inclusion in a list of links of private sites providing functionality similar to AJB.   

   

Silver Lining in the AJB Shutdown

   

Freedom…

   

For years the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) declined to authorize enhancements for America’s Job Bank (AJB) that might have allowed it to compete more effectively with private sector job boards. Yet AJB refused to die.

 

April 2006 data from Hitwise shows AJB as seventh in market share among employment and training sites.

   

AJB was voted a WEDDLE’s 2006 User’s Choice Award.

   

AJB was the 5th Best Site for Active Job Search.

   

   

Last year, ETA stated that “…the benefits of AJB no longer outweigh the costs of operating and maintaining this system…”, and announced that AJB would be phased out by June 30^th, 2007.  Yet AJB refused to die.

   

January 2007 data from Hitwise shows AJB remained (just barely) seventh in market share among employment and training sites.

   

AJB was voted a WEDDLE’s 2007 User’s Choice Award.

   

Last weekend ETA pulled the plug, setting America’s Job Bank free.

   

   

Rebirth…

   

AJB succeeded, not because of the design or infrastructure of AJB, but rather because it was an employer-funded public service, placed the highest priorities on confidentiality and data quality, partnered with employment services and private organizations, and helped meet our obligation to veterans. When ETA pulled the plug on AJB, only the parts that didn’t matter died.

   

AJB, the site, is gone; but its spirit lives on.  Where before there was one site, now there are two … America’s Job Exchange and JobCentral have committed to maintaining the principles that made AJB successful and they’ve taken on the challenge of bringing together employers to provide direct funding now that the government has exited the market.

   

Last weekend the spirit of America’s Job Bank was reborn.

   

   

Innovation…

   

One thing is sure … whereas AJB stopped innovating years ago, the new competition between JobCentral and America’s Job Exchange will breed innovation.  In this regard, we’ll all win.

   

NASWA Selects JobCentral to Ease the Transition from AJB

   

Per today's press release...

 

Washington, D.C., Thursday, March 22, 2007 – JobCentral National Labor Exchange (www.jobcentral.com) has been selected by The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) (www.naswa.org ) to provide job seekers, employers and states a cost-effective transition from America’s Job Bank (AJB) when it is discontinued June 30, 2007, as previously announced by the U.S. Department of Labor.

 

JobCentral will provide a wide range of employment services to participating state workforce agencies, from job listing distribution to and from state employment web sites to participation in the national labor exchange with other states.  The service will also be available to federal agencies for fast response to recruiting needs, after disasters, such as hurricanes or earthquakes. 

   

JobCentral will allow job seekers to search over five million (5,000,000) jobs from corporate web sites, newspapers, trade associations, and other Internet sources in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, U. S. territories, major metropolitan areas, and all U.S. cities and postal zip code areas.  It will be available free-of-charge to job seekers.  Job postings, resume searching capabilities and other services will be available to all employers in all industries.  The service will be free to employers through participating state workforce agencies. 

   

Richard A. Hobbie, Executive Director of The National Association of State Workforce Agencies, said, “With the planned phase out of AJB by the U.S. Department of Labor, NASWA needed to act fast to help states implement a successor.  The JobCentral National Labor Exchange is designed to do that and more.”         

   

William O. Warren, Executive Director of DirectEmployers Association, the non-profit consortium of over 250 leading U.S. employers, which owns and manages the JobCentral site, added, “JobCentral will play a prominent role in helping employers build their workforce and comply with state and federal regulations by serving as our nation’s only online cross-state labor exchange and distributing job listings to the state and local level.  It will be invaluable as a replacement for the role America’s Job Bank has played in helping employers meet federal job posting requirements for Affirmative Action Plans and Jobs for Veterans Act compliance.”

******

   

About The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA)

   

The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) is an organization of state administrators of unemployment insurance laws, employment services, training programs, employment statistics and labor market information and other programs and services provided through publicly-funded state workforce systems.

   

About JobCentral National Labor Exchange

   

JobCentral National Labor Exchange is owned and managed by DirectEmployers Association, a non-profit consortium of leading U. S. employers.  Its member companies include an impressive group of industry leaders such as Abbott Laboratories, Analyst International, Allstate, ALLTEL Corporation, Anheuser-Busch, Ashland, Avaya, Baxter, Bell South, The Boeing Company, Capgemini, Cargill, Cingular Wireless, Cintas, Cisco, Coca-Cola, General Electric, General Dynamics, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, ManTech International, Mellon Financial Corporation, Merck, Harris Corporation, Home Depot, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Mayo Clinic, Merrill Lynch, National City Corporation, Norfolk Southern, Northrop Grumman, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, Raytheon, Sears Holdings, Southern California Edison, Southern Company, Sprint, Textron, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Union Pacific, UnitedHealth Group, USAA, and Xerox Corporation.

   

Navisite to Continue Free AJB Services

   

Per their press release:

   

“NaviSite…today announced that the Company will continue to operate the America’s Job Bank (AJB). NaviSite will continue to offer services to its clients, constituents, employers and job seekers without any interruption in service and at no charge when the funding for the AJB program ends in July 2007.”

   

The company has a new address at www.americasjobbank2.com that retains the look of the current AJB system.

   

Per Denis Martin, NaviSite CTO and Managing Director of the AJB program, “NaviSite has designed, developed and operated America’s Job Bank’s website for more than 10 years – we know the system inside and out.  We have the unique combination of infrastructure resources and expertise to enhance the current system and effectively grow the employment services component of NaviSite’s business.  NaviSite understands the specific needs of State government, including specific data exchange, compliance and reporting requirements that we’ve worked hand-in-hand with these organizations to define and build.  We plan to offer States and other organizations the ability to customize and integrate this platform with their own systems - an approach that was previously difficult to accomplish within the constraints of the public government’s processes and procedures.“

   

NaviSite is reaching out to AJB users to inform them of the continued service at no charge and is working with the National Association of State Work Force Agencies (NASWA) to include their membership in the program.  The Company is finalizing plans to ensure a seamless transition, while defining a roadmap for new functionality and features that will be released as part of the continued service.

   

Concluded Martin, “NaviSite will continue to provide the America’s Job Bank user community with value-added services – based upon a flexible, scaleable solution and deep knowledge of the data and needs of end users.  Our goal in the coming months is to assure current users that they can plan for business as usual, while continuing to receive the high levels of service and increased features and functions in the near future.”

   

No question that NaviSite knows AJB and has the support infrastructure to continue providing AJB-like services.  The question is this:  Will States share information, collected under a publicly funded employment program, with a private for-profit firm?  When AJB was funded by the Department of Labor and managed by the State of New York, sharing information was no problem.  Now, I wonder.  Working with NASWA is a smart move, but I wouldn’t bet on mass adoption by the States.

   

Job Search Agents Could Be Better

   

Gil Brueckner has an interesting post on his experience using job scouts in a real-world job search … check out Job Hunting? Current Search Agents Are Good, But Could Be Better. 

   

Nice job Gil … and thanks for sharing your findings!

   

Craigslist – 5th Choice for Semi-Active Job Search

Continuing the Top Ten Sites For Semi-Active Job Search series, Craigslist earns 5th place, delivering a user experience best described as classic Craigslist – minimalistic, exclusive, and functional.

Minimalistic:  Surely there is a better word for the Craigslist interface, but it escapes me at the moment.  For this test I needed to create an agent, scout, or alert, to let me know when ‘auto sales’ jobs in Boston were posted to Craigslist. 

Nowhere on the Craigslist search results page is there an option to save a search as an email agent.  But, if you scroll to the bottom of the results page, you will find a RSS link followed by a question mark. 

As a certified (HFI) usability analyst, I understand the importance of keeping interfaces uncluttered; but Craigslist takes minimalism to an extreme.  Why not say ‘Save as RSS feed’?

Exclusive:  Craigslist seems to take a geek-centric view of the world.  It’s as if their interface says ‘email (the most used Internet application) is so old school that we don’t offer that option.  Our users are into new technologies like RSS – but just in case you aren’t up to speed yet, click on this question mark for a helpful explanation.’

OK … if it’s really simple, why is a three-paragraph explanation necessary?  And if you need to read the explanation, do you now have enough information to save a search as an RSS feed?  No, you don’t. 

Functional:  And yet, Craigslist works – and for this test, it worked better than AJB, Jobster, JobCentral, and HotJobs in returning ‘auto sales’ jobs in Boston.

Being the best for semi-active job search requires strength in four areas: 1) tools for saving and managing saved searches; 2) effective communication strategies (email or RSS); 3) broad coverage of available jobs; and 4) an accurate search/match engine. 

Four sites outperformed Craigslist by providing better tools for saving and managing searches, broader coverage of the job market, additional communication options, and more accurate search engines.  Thus, Craigslist earns 5th place for semi-active job search.

America’s Job Bank – Not Recommended for Semi-Active Job Search

Continuing the Top Ten Sites For Semi-Active Job Search series, America’s Job Bank (AJB) would be in 6th place …if it had a future … but it doesn’t … so it isn’t.

AJB outperformed HotJobs, JobCentral and Jobster in this comparison test, yet it receives a rating of ‘Not Recommended’ following last week’s announcement that the site is shutting down.

Granted, the announced shutdown date is more than a year away.  Still, as a lame duck site, the number of employers posting jobs to AJB will begin to decline.   How fast this decline will occur is unknown; but a pending shutdown is not good for business.

So it really doesn’t matter that AJB did some cool things in this comparison – e.g. sending me an email every day, even if to say there were no matches, just so I wouldn’t wonder if the message with my dream job was lost in cyberspace. What matters now is that AJB is exiting the game.

Fortunately, five sites outperformed AJB for semi-active search – stay tuned for the countdown to number one.

America’s Job Bank to Shutdown by June 30, 2007

On Friday, the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) confirmed that they “…came to the conclusion that the benefits of AJB no longer outweigh the costs of operating and maintaining this system, as the market has evolved to the point where a Federally-sponsored electronic labor exchange is no longer necessary.”

This confirms the post 5th Best Site for Active Job Search – America’s Job Bank, in which I said “This post is a tip of the hat to an old friend on life support.  For the past few years, the leadership within ETA has made it clear that AJB’s days are numbered; so it comes as no surprise that the Associated Press reported on Friday that in the 2007 federal budget proposed by President Bush, 141 programs will be cut or eliminated – including America’s Job Bank.   Projected savings are $15 million per year.”

AJB has been on a maintenance-only budget for the past two years, so the service has failed to keep up with innovations in private-sector job boards.  Even so, the site is still heavily used by employers and jobseekers.  As of today, AJB reports over 2 million jobs available – all posted to AJB, since AJB does no spidering of content on other sites.   

From the day AJB was founded in 1995, it has been national in scope, free to all, void of spam, and committed to the highest standards of confidentiality.  Perhaps, as ETA has concluded, the benefits no longer outweigh the costs – but there are no other job boards operating today that can make the same claims regarding scope, cost, spam and confidentiality.

As a business owner I’m not a fan of publicly subsidized services competing in commercial markets; but I also believe that society benefits when all have access to basic services without regard to income.  While this may sound contradictory, it’s not, at least for me.

In every market there are niches that are not profitable, in dollars and cents, yet which are important for social reasons.  In these cases, government can provide the service, contract for the service, or force private firms to provide the service via regulation.  Personally, I believe contracting for the service makes the most sense – as ETA has done with AJB from day one.

We have public roads and toll roads, the Postal Service and FedEx, police and private security, public parks and private parks – what if all of the publicly subsidized options were eliminated?  Would low-cost or free options still exist?  Can you name a single for-profit business that makes decisions based primarily on social impacts? 

Government isn’t efficient, and it’s not always effective, but it can operate programs for social good without regard to profit or loss.  America’s Job Bank has been a shining example; and I feel poorer for the loss.

Per ETA, “The phase out will occur over the next year and a half, with June 30, 2007, being the final date the Web site and its associated system will be available.”