Techno job seekers turning to the internet

By ADAM GIFFORD

Internet employment companies are placing more IT jobs than any other occupational group, but blue-collar work hardly rates a mention.

Libby Christie, Asia Pacific managing director of Monster.com, says that as internet recruiting is maturing some job descriptions are proving more suited to the medium.

"In the Australia and New Zealand e-recruiting market, IT accounts for 23 per cent of our business," she says.

Services - which includes legal and health care - is 15 per cent, followed by 9 per cent advertising and 7 per cent finance industry jobs.

She says more people are going online to find work.

Visits to monster.co.nz are rising by 10 per cent a month, and people are staying on the site longer.

"All the indicators are that New Zealand is increasingly interested in using the internet for jobs, with Monster.com as a career management site."

Monster.com is the interactive division of global recruitment conglomerate TMP Worldwide.

It has more than 6.3 million resumes in its database - with 15,000 being added daily - and more than 475,000 international job listings.

In the Asia Pacific region - which includes New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong - the number of resumes has doubled to more than 120,000 since September.

Ms Christie says online boards are changing the market.

"In the old model, the candidate needed to see the job advertised, then apply. So, they were taking all the initiative.

"The new model allows any candidate anywhere in the world to apply for jobs and be matched to them by search engine, whether you're looking or not."

Employers want quality candidates and the online job sites can weed out unsuitable applicants. "No recruiter wants to be swamped by unqualified resumes coming over the net."

Research firm International Data Corporation estimates the internet job market in Australia-New Zealand will be worth $320 million by 2004.

Ms Christie says online job boards will not replace newspaper advertising or face-to-face recruiting, but they will continue grabbing chunks of the market.

"People will always need a choice of ways to communicate and receive information they are comfortable with," she says.

"The younger generation, which is comfortable using the net, will see these services as a no-brainer. People who are not as comfortable with the technology will prefer the newspaper."

Ms Christie says Monster.com is a "true bricks-and-mortar business. We are a recruitment business, not a dot com, so we use the new medium to get global reach.

"We also use the technology of the digital medium, such as database searches, to match candidates with jobs."

It is paying off: TMP's third quarter results reveal $US117.4 million ($262 million) in interactive fees and commissions (the Monster.com side of the business).

This is an increase of 192 per cent on the previous year and 27 per cent up on the second quarter.