I just read yesterday that online recruitment for 2007 now exceeds $16 billion. So what do you see as the the future of online recruitment? Do you see any possible consolidation of job boards, M&A etc?

Share your thoughts :)

Sarah

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I definitely think their will be more companies buying niche boards in 2008.

The big 3 boards however will continue to be "marginalized" by the new crop of recruiting tools...social networks, blogs, video & podcasts. Online recruiting is undergoing the early stages of an evolution.
Thanks Chris.

I think the same too. I see a lot of potential for niche job boards: specialized and local job boards. I also think the big 3 will start losing their momentum. Looking for right candidates on the Big 3 is like looking for a needle in a haystacks.

Just my thought.

Sarah

http://www.RecruitingWire.com
I have reviewed domain purchases in my niche recently and I can see people intergrading themes. M&A will follow soon. We’ve recently seen blog acquisition activity too. Chris can attest to this.
I think we'll see the big boards continue to buy smaller niche boards but not do a great job of integrating the niche brands into their own mega brands.

What I would like to see is for a major job board player see if they can make pay per click job postings work. That would really shake up the industry and make it more exciting to watch evolve.
My opinion is that there will be a new style of hiring people based on contractors. So the sites where you will be able to find the right people for short term contracts will rise up.

www.executive-search.cz - Technology People Easter Europe
Niche and and local boards are moving in. I agree with you and Chris, internet search is absolutely evolving.
As Chris said, it’s evolving. I caught wind of Second Life and instantly Isaac Asimov came to mind. Though I don’t foresee it coming to that point just yet, companies and job seekers are seizing technology by the horns and using it to their advantage. On Focus Management’s blog there are some ideas as to what recruitment will look like in 5 years, perhaps some food for thought.
In Australia we have seen a lot of people try to enter the general job board market & flame out big time, however the niche boards are growing nicely. The big 3 in Australia won't merge but they will quite likely acquire some of the smaller players and I would guess some of the medium sized boards will grow through acquisition.

But the real question is will M&A be good for the job seeker? Will it mean we get new/better services from the job boards. Probably not.

Online recruiting is changing and will always change, another in agreement with Chris. What will be interesting is how it change and who is able to influence the change (if anyone).
Specifically relating to job boards, I will go out on a limb and say that we will see a paradigm shift in the market in the next few years where the value of pay for postings will drop to $0. We can already see the pressure starting to come from places like job aggregators, Googlebase, Social Networks with job posting capabilities, blogs with job feeds, corporate careers pages getting more advanced with feeds, alerts and SEO, etc.

I think this pressure will make the major job boards re-assess their models and move to structures focused on other revenue vehicles (Advertising, branding, Services). I am starting to see this already with some boards I am working with that are now engaged on pay for results model vs. pay large $$$ up front for postings.

I have been wrong before so I will make a note to revisit my comments 2 years from now to see if I am wrong again :-)

Rob
Thank you all for your comments. I can't agree with you more. One thing is clear, I see more niche job board sprouting up. An example is a new DCJobMarket for jobs in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.

Thank you all

Sarah
RecruitingWire.com

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