His experience was no quirk. From a modest start in the 1980s as a place for engineers to swap job tips, Internet job banks have grown into a huge, global employment exchange. More than 1 million job openings are now advertised on 5,000 Internet sites, estimates John Sumser, editor of Electronic Recruiting News , an online newsletter. All kinds of jobs are on display, from bank tellers to bookkeepers, translators to truck drivers, nannies to nurses. Economics is driving the stampede into cyberspace.
Employers can fill jobs faster and at less expense.
No one knows how many jobs are being filled via cyberspace. But experts agree the Internet is a powerful new search tool that's changing the way the job market works. Not all job-seekers are rushing into cyberspace. Some people dislike the impersonality of the Net, or are simply reluctant to put information about themselves on public display. Caveats aside, hundreds of major companies, including Boeing, IBM, Ford, Gannett and Citicorp, now list job openings on their Web sites.