It's predicted that in the next five years a majority of people in the labor force will use the Internet to hunt for jobs. W hile there is no way to tell how many of the thousands of positions will be filled from the Internet or via conventional means, the Internet offers the advantage of speed to employers and applicants alike. And, unlike a print advertisement, there is no word limit, so recruiters can be very clear in describing the position description. Corporate recruiters say that the cost of searching for applicants is decreasing as a result of the use of on-line posting and the process of finding qualified applicants is falling from weeks or months to just days. The trend is even helping employers who don't directly post jobs on the Internet, as many on-line databanks post job listings culled from print advertisement.
Employers seem to be happier with the new, computer-literate workforce.
State government employment agencies in 36 states now offer a vast range of job postings on-line, and within a year another 12 states will join them by connecting their job listing services to the Labor Department service. P ostings to the Labor Department's service more than doubled to 300,000 jobs last year, representing nearly 50,000 employers. Another trend is the specialization of employment services to assist employers and applicants in specific labor markets, be they locale or technically oriented. This is a major step towards the creation of a national job market. The theory is that easy access to national job listings via the Internet will help reduce regional pockets of unemployment and assist employers in regions of high employment in finding qualified workers more efficiently.