According to Greenlight’s latest quarterly report, Recruitment June 2010, there has also been a surge in online searches for career advice, with search volumes for the term ‘career advice’ soaring from just 14,800 searches in March to a staggering one million in June.
Simon Hollingsworth, lead researcher at Greenlight, said: "The surge in career advice may likely be explained by the influx of recent graduates researching career information online.
"In addition, the recession, which resulted in job losses, has seen people look to pursue new career paths and acquire skills enabling them to apply for roles beyond those they have traditionally worked in."
The survey found there were 13.2 million searches performed in June for recruitment-related keywords, an 8% decrease compared with May, when 14.3 million were conducted but almost five million up on December 2009 volumes.
Job-specific terms were the most searched for, accounting for over 5.6 million searches – 43% of the total search volume. The term ‘sales jobs’ was the most popular, accounting for the largest share of the overall search volume, 4% (246,000 searches).
Of the 18 sectors covered, job searches within retail and sales received the highest search volumes, over 700,000. Administration and HR followed, then construction and engineering.
But at the opposite end of the spectrum was the recruitment sector. It had the least number of job queries, around 30,000. Procurement followed then science and technology, each with a little over 120,000 searches
TotalJobs was the most visible website in natural search. It achieved 44% of the share. Reed followed with 34%. Monster, with a 33% share, ascended Greenlight’s league table from sixth to third position, increasing its visibility by 10% since March. Gumtree, the most visible website in Greenlight’s previous report, fell to position four in the league table, having lost l8% visibility
It was a similar picture in paid search where TotalJobs, the most visible advertiser, attained 70% visibility. Monster followed (47%) then Reed (45%). By contrast, the Guardian did not feature in Greenlight’s top 60 advertisers, having ranked at position five in Greenlight’s March report, when it achieved a 31% share.
To gauge social media interaction with brands, Greenlight monitored the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the top 15 brands in its integrated league table in order to assess how many ‘fans’ and ‘followers’ each has. Greenlight ranked brands based on the cumulative value of their ‘fans’ and ‘followers’, a score that it terms the Social Media Popularity Index (SMPI). It further analysed the proactivity of brands by considering the number of ‘posts’ and ‘tweets’ brands produced for consumers to interact with in June.
Greenlight’s SMPI reveals the Guardian had the greatest number of followers in social media (due to the fact that it is a multi-channelled brand), with a combined following of over 32,000 on Facebook and Twitter. But, Reed was the most interactive brand. It produced over 2,400 ‘tweets’ in June. Content included latest job opportunities available, with job details and links to its website.
