Citizens Advice is calling for online job portals to require recruiters to include “a minimum standard of information” about roles advertised to help people decide whether to apply.

Research by the national charity of 800 job adverts across three online recruitment portals, which it did not identify, found:

• 2 in 5 adverts are unclear about whether the job is full or part-time
• 1 in 5 don’t tell applicants how much they will be paid
• 2 in 5 are not clear if the role is temporary or permanent
• 1 in 10 jobs adverts do not specific either an employer or an agency, so applicants don’t know who they’re sending their details to.

However, Recruiter Award-winning creative, digital and online specialist job board Bubble Jobs told Recruiter that it was “unrealistic and unfeasible” to expect online job services to check adverts individually.

Analysis of the research data by Citizens Advice also found that self-employed roles are not always advertised as such. In 12% of cases, adverts included content suggesting self-employing, such as ‘commission only’ roles, “without explicitly saying that they are”, a Citizens Advice statement said.

Job site Bubble Jobs agreed with the Citizens Advice report’s findings that job adverts should be “as clear and transparent as possible so candidates get a clear picture” of role requirements. 

In a statement to Recruiter, Bubble Jobs said that its site had clear fields to note whether a job was permanent or temporary, full or part-time and options for clients to submit salary bands or details. 

“However, it’s not always straightforward,” the statement went on to say. “For example, from what we’ve seen, a lot of employers are reluctant to include salary information – particularly if they are seeking to recruit externally as they don’t want to cause unnecessary disruption internally.”

Commenting on the research, Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: “Vague job ads risk wasting people’s time and business’s money.” Guy pointed out that jobseekers faced “a real challenge” when advertisements did not give them enough need-to-know information such as “if they’ll earn enough to keep a roof over their head”. 

She went on to note that vague job ads also wasted employers’ time on “high numbers of unsuitable applications”. 

Finally, Guy said: “Requiring recruiters posting job adverts to include a minimum standard of information would help people decide whether to apply for a role. Employers would also benefit from a better-matched pool of applicants.”

Bubble Jobs countered: “With hundreds of adverts being placed on job boards like Bubble Jobs every day, we must trust our clients to abide by Advertising Standards Authority guidelines. Also, the suggestion that job boards and career portals should be responsible for checking those adverts individually is unrealistic and unfeasible due to the time and resources involved.”

Other job boards contacted by Recruiter did not provide comment by press deadlines.

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