Internet, Referrals Bring In Most External Hires

The role these two sources play in bringing outside bodies to fill vacancies is even more astounding when future expansion projections are factored in; by 2005 these two channels could account for 75% of all hires. This in turn has tightened the screws around newspapers and third party recruiters, that have seen their share dwindle to just 3.8% and 1.2%, respectively, off all external hires , according to CareerXroads “Source of Hire” study.

Most external hires do not even stray far from the home page.Ofthe hires from the Internet, employers report 68% came from their company Web site. After the company’s Web site, niche job sites were a larger source of hires from the Internet in 2003 than leading job boards combined, making up 17.6% of external Internet hires, compared to:

Companies welcomed the traffic off the street in 2003. More than half of the firms polled (57.9%) said they increased their hiring in 2003 when measured against 2002’s numbers, whereas an identical 21.5% decreased their hiring and hired the same. However, the waters in 2004 may be a bit choppy. Only 28.6% of the respondents planned on ramping up hiring activities in 2004, compared to 40% that expected a decrease and 31.4% projecting no change.

Data for the study was collected between December 15, 2003 and January 9, 2004 covering the year 2003. The study canvassed 49 firms. A copy of the report is available at www.careerxroads.com .