Online job ads hit badly by recession

03 March 2010

The volume of online job advertisements “dragged along the bottom at the height of the recession”, according to a recently released report from Broadbean Technology. The ’Advert Distribution Report 2009’ shows that job advertisements posted by clients of Broadbean’s leading job multi-posting system to 1,100 job boards fell by a third or 32.2%, overall in 2009 from 2008.

Broadbean managing director Dan McGuire told Recruiter: “Our data shows a continual decline in the average number of adverts posted between Q4 2008 and the end of Q1 2009. This culminated in a period of six months where the number of postings dragged along the bottom at the height of the recession.”

The annual report provides data on the number of jobs distributed by Broadbean’s Adcourier system. “The industry worst hit was building/construction, suffering a 67.8% decrease year-on-year,” the report says.

Better times were experienced by the not-for-profit sector (education/training, not-for-profit/charities, public sector/government and social care) where job ads increased exponentially, by 97.3% overall. “In particular, the social care industry saw an unprecedented rise of 81.3% in adverts posted year-on-year,” the report says. It adds that despite the increased number of job adverts being posted, the most notable achievement in the sector was its stability month on month, “having fewer peaks and troughs than any other industry”.

Other highlights included:

• Job postings in the administrative sector (admin/secretarial, call centre/customer service and HR/personnel) dropped overall by 47.8% when compared to 2008. In HR/personnel, advertised vacancies bottomed out at 8,622 in February then peaked for the year in June with 14,278. A total of 143,409 HR jobs were posted in 2009, 37.9% less than in 2008. Admin/secretarial postings suffered the highest fall in the category at 52.8%. Call centre/customer service job postings fell by 47.1% from 2008.
• Accountancy (accountancy, banking, financial services, insurance and legal) experienced a 43.3% drop in job postings overall. Individually, accountancy job postings fell the furthest, by 52.7% from 2008. Insurance job postings actually rose by 26.2%. Banking fell by 45.5% from 2008, financial services postings by 40.2% and legal job postings by 37.2%. The latter saw its highest number of job postings in February, with 58,385, and the lowest number, 36,335, in December.
• The healthy not-for-profit sector saw a steep 56.4% rise in education/training job postings and a 20.3% increase in public sector/government.
• The graduates/trainees category experienced a 47.9% drop in job postings in 2009 from 2008.
• In hospitality/catering, 61.2% fewer jobs were posted in 2009 than in 2008. The highest number of jobs (13,291) were posted in January and the lowest (6,979) in December.
• For IT job postings, 2009 was a roller coaster ride, with the overall figures down from 2008 by 32.6%. The total number of IT jobs posted in 2009 was 2,015,984.
• Sales (marketing, purchasing/procurement, retail and sales) experienced a less severe fall than others, at 23.7% fewer overall with retail faring the least worst, at 16.4% fewer retail job postings. Purchasing/procurement had the category high, at 28%.

Since August, we’ve observed a steady increase in postings and January’s stats really shot up, breaking the trend of gradual improvement and returning to levels not seen since October 2008

The picture for the current year looks brighter. McGuire told Recruiter: “The job posting figures for 2010 so far are very promising…. Since August, we’ve observed a steady increase in postings and January’s stats really shot up, breaking the trend of gradual improvement and returning to levels not seen since October 2008.”

Key indicators

• The worst hit industry was building/construction with a 67.8% decrease year-on-year
• Conversely, the not-forprofit sector increased its job adverts by 97.3% overall
• Overall, job adverts fell by 32.2% last year compared with 2008

Broadbean’s 25,000 users include recruitment agencies and corporate/direct employers, across 30 countries. Adverts are distributed to 35 countries. International advertisement postings were included in the posting statistics

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