Internet could be job shop of future

By Selwyn Parker

The future of job placement just might be on the Internet. That's certainly the view of an enthusiastic American named Jeff Taylor, who is chief executive of Monster.com [www.monster.com], the online recruitment service.

One of the few Internet businesses in the black, Monster.com reported a profit of $US1.2 million on revenue of $US48.5 million last year.

The five-year-old Monster.com makes its money by wrapping advertisers around the 200,000 jobs it carries online.

Biggest of the online recruitment companies, Monster.com is on the crest of a wave. It gets 7.5 million hits a month.

According to the latest research, online recruitment is the fastest-growing advertising category on the World Wide Web. US-based Forrester Research predicts that online recruitment will be a $US1.7 billion business within four years. And Britain's Institute of Personnel and Development says that a third of British employers use the Net for job advertisements. That's two-and-a-half times more than two years ago.

The Internet is already the preferred job-hunting medium for people in IT, electronics and telecommunications industries, according to Richard Spencer, of recruitment consultancy Michael Page.

As he told Britain's Sunday Business newspaper, other professions are catching up fast: "We are finding that prime candidates in finance, accounting, sales and marketing are increasingly looking for new jobs via the Net." Monster.com's Taylor has no doubts whatsoever: "The Internet will transform the job market."

* Contributing writer Selwyn Parker is available at wordz@xtra.co.nz