In a late night posting (10:49 pm) ERE released an article about the financial results of both Monster and Careerbuilder/ Both job boards saw major drops in revenue in the 2nd Quarter - Careerbuilder by an astonishing 31% but still looking better than Monster's 37% drop. On the plus side - even with the loss, Monster still beat analysts expectations.

Want to read more about the details and financial information - Click here to read the ERE article by John Zappe.

After reading the posting a few days ago on the HR Technology Vendors increase in revenues - it makes you wonder a little bit about what is going on with the job boards. At first glance you can blame it on the basics - economy, high unemployment rates, companies not hiring...But the reality of the situation is that the traditional job board model is likely going to be phasing out in the coming years.

What makes me think that?

1. Job Board Aggregators - If they can fix some of the ease of use issues they have - sites like indeed.com and simplyhired.com will undoubtedly be the best resource from a candidates perspective. No more having to search a number of individual job boards and company career site. Simple. Effective. From a company perspective, these aggregators run on a more PPC cost model and so for many organization they can be listed on this site at no charge to their company.

2. Social Media -Sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn have become the new place where people can be found. For companies, the cost to advertise & brand is next to nothing. New middle-man products (and some ATS's) that are on the market allow for quick distribution to a number various social media sites for less than a fraction of a traditional job board posting. With this market (or any market, actually) you are more likely to reach the passive candidates on this route than the traditional job board. Why does that matter? Because you can target more specifically and waste less time on people you don't really care to look at anyway. (In the slightly further future - it will be transition to mobile recruiting and the interaction via SMS that will make the difference - read my thoughts on that here)

3. Customer Experience - Just like with our own branding and candidate experience programs we implement in our organizations - the customer experience at some of the other, niche boards is well, better. They are more responsive and more forward thinking than many of the big guys. Stop focusing on how to add more sales and revenue - instead look at the value you can bring to the community you are working in. Building the trust and value in your brand will lead to better sales.

Want to see a job board that is actually succeeding? Read the full article

But, if you are so inclined - let's keep up the conversation that the major job boards biggest issue right now is the economy.