Diggings - Latest Comments

Re: December Jobs Report Will Be Far Worse Than Expected

Martin Langeveld — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:08:30 -0000

Well, you were correct on this, congrats.
Maybe my optimism stems from living in Vermont, which should be booming, judging by the growth you show (but I realize the sample size in Vermont is too small to be meaningful),.

Re: December Jobs Report Will Be Far Worse Than Expected

Toby Dayton — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:19:34 -0000

Martin,

We did publish information last year, but year-over-year comparisons are challenging because we are indexing so many more companies than we did a year ago. The information from last December can be found at

http://blogs.jobdig.com/dig...

But you'll notice that we were indexing approximately 4,000 fewer companies then than we are today.

Toby

Re: December Jobs Report Will Be Far Worse Than Expected

Martin Langeveld — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:21:23 -0000

Did LinkUp publish comparable information for December 2008? Is there a multi-year trend line for this data? I could not find it on the site.

Re: December Jobs Report Will Be Far Worse Than Expected

Toby Dayton — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:06:07 -0000

Martin,

Thanks for your comment. LinkUp has actually been around for years, and JobDig, which owns and operates LinkUp, was founded in 2000, so we are well aware of the seasonality to the job and recruitment advertising market.

Having said that, I would agree that some of the downturn could be the result of fewer companies hiring due to seasonality rather than continued weakness in the economy, but regardless of what is causing the downturn, the point is that companies are posting fewer job openings to their corporate websites. That makes it far less likely that the U.S. economy experienced a net increase in jobs created during the month as most economists expect. And that was the point of my post and what I read from the LinkUp data - that employers are not starting to hire again in the robust way that many economists seem to think they are.

Unemployment may actually go down again in December despite a monthly decline in jobs, but this would be due to the flawed way in which our nation's unemployment rate is calculated. If people stop looking for work because of the holidays or general discouragement, they are not counted as unemployed.

We'll see what comes out tomorrow, but my guess is that the U.S. lost more jobs in December.

Toby

Re: Harrison Barnes and Hound.com – The Scourge Of The Job Board Industry

WarrEagle — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:01:56 -0000

Hi Toby, Mike from jobshouts.com, we have our hands full with hound.com and the rest of Mr. Barnes ilk of scam sites. I was greeted this morning with an alert that hound.com was offering to pay people to cross post their positions to our site. Thought I would share this with you as we too wanted to help get the word out. I found your post after googling a bit.

You can read more about it here http://blog.jobshouts.com/2...

Re: December Jobs Report Will Be Far Worse Than Expected

Martin Langeveld — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:08:27 -0000

The problem with this data is that since LinkUp wasn't around in December 2008, you don't know what the seasonal pattern is. Normally, recruitment slows down in December - people don't quit jobs as much, and employers wait till after the holidays to start the recruitment process. Lots of recruiters take vacations in December. So I doubt if this means anything. It's probably a normal dip.

Re: Google On The Road To Looking Like Yahoo

Toby Dayton — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:47:58 -0000

It's an ad.

Interestingly enough, here's a story that ran today in MediaPost:

Google Runs Multimillion-Dollar Ad For Nexus One
by Laurie Sullivan, Yesterday, 6:45 PM

Google began running a one-line blurb on google.com Wednesday to promote the Nexus One mobile phone that the Mountain View, Calif. search engine unveiled the day before. The link goes directly to the Web site set up to sell the phone.

Gene Munster, research analyst at Piper Jaffray, pegs the value of the home page takeover at between $15 and $20 CPMs, or $4 million to $5 million for a buyout per day. It's not the first time Google has run a one-line tag on google.com to promote products. Munster says they did it for the Motorola Droid phone and the Chrome Browser.

In November, Google's home page in the United States had 147.7 million unique visitors and 452.6 million average daily page views, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Google, which takes pride in keeping the home page uncluttered and clean, ran a Droid ad for about 18 hours when the phone launched in November, estimates Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research. He calls the ad "priceless, worth about a trillion dollars," because no one else has the "privilege" of running an ad on that page.

Has Google changed its stance on using the home page as a promotional platform? Adam Hartung, an analyst with Spark Partners, refers to Google's home page as a "sacred cow." The company has something that almost seems like a religious idol. This ad demonstrates that Google is willing to change that and "attack a sacred cow to step the company forward," he says. "And that's a very good sign for investors."

If successful, Google always has the option of moving the one-line ad to YouTube, according to Aaron Kessler, senior research analyst at Kaufman Bros., San Francisco, Calif. "Google is obviously putting all their weight behind mobile, which is one of their top three initiatives," he says. "They have had failures in other areas, but they are dedicated to making sure mobile thrives. Radio and TV advertising didn't turn out too well for them."

Re: Google On The Road To Looking Like Yahoo

Steven Rothberg — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:13:02 -0000

Is it really an ad when you're simply promoting your own services to your own users? It isn't like Google is running ads for other organizations on its home page.

Re: Google Places Ad on Homepage

Harley — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:08:24 -0000

Nexus One ad appeared this AM.

Re: 18 Minutes? WTF?!?!

Toby Dayton — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:30:03 -0000

The stat comes from the current issue of Harpers Magazine (the issue with Warren Buffet on the cover). The stat was actually fact-checked by U.S. News & World Report, who posted the stat in an article they ran on their website that stemmed from my blog post. They contacted the Department of Labor (I'd guess someone in DOL's media relations department) who confirmed the stat. I'll continue to look for the original DOL source (did they do a poll, interviews, contact state workforce centers, etc.) and post anything that I find out.

Re: 18 Minutes? WTF?!?!

Kate-Madonna Hindes — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:49:10 -0000

Eighteen Minutes speaks something louder. The emotional barrier to job search, ("I can't believe I have to do this," and "I'm not going to find anything today anyway,") is not only draining GOOD people of their passion but taxpayers of money.

Thanks for sharing!

Re: 18 Minutes? WTF?!?!

Ejly — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:05:11 -0000

Interesting. Like @barbarasafani, I'm interested in your source. I checked the Bureau's tables (http://www.bls.gov/tus/#tab... and didn't see this data. I checked Harper's Index (http://harpers.org/index/?q... and didn't see this there either.

Re: 18 Minutes? WTF?!?!

barbarasafani — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:43:22 -0000

Toby,

Fascinating info...do you have a link to the U.S. Department of Labor statistic on this?

Re: Harrison Barnes and Hound.com – The Scourge Of The Job Board Industry

Nick Corcodilos — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:29:01 -0000

Must be take-down-the-quacks week... Add my vote: http://corcodilos.com/blog/...

Re: A Good Case For Rethinking Your Thinking…

Raven — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:00:13 -0000

I am currently doing research for a paper on how companies can become more attractive in the recruiting process to Gen Y - and this post brings up a really interesting point. The more companies cling to outdated ways of recruiting, organizing and growing - the more staid they become. Companies need to work smarter when trying to attract the right candidates. Although WOM job hiring still works, it is a very narrow and focused filter. Recruiting through such portals as Linkup seems way more efficient (time and moneywise)

Re: 27 of 36 Industries Saw Increase In Total Job Listings On LinkUp In November

Susan Whitcomb — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:28:07 -0000

Thanks Toby and GL for encouraging news. Love the Christmas color-coded graphs, with GREEN edging out red!

Re: 27 of 36 Industries Saw Increase In Total Job Listings On LinkUp In November

susanwhitcomb — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:22:49 -0000

Thanks Toby and GL for encouraging news. Love the "Christmas-color-coded" graphs, with GREEN edging out red!

Re: The Bastardized Math Behind The U.S. Unemployment Rate Calculations & Why Monster Should Be Embarrassed About Their Invitation To The White House

nikpalmer — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:05:00 -0000

Hey,That's my line! :) Thanks for clearly outlining the issues.

Re: Something Every Job Seeker Should Be Doing…

Name — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:20:28 -0000

What a great idea! Every job seeker should do this today.

Re: Shocking Graphic of U.S. Unemployment

gunnar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:57:51 -0000

another reason to move to Nebraska

Re: Employment Guide Still Running Bogus, Scam Ads

Joe — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:28:46 -0000

If you look at the bottom right of the add, this is a service company that does training, not the actual hiring. DUH, of course you pay for their service.

Re: Monster’s Problems Keep Growing

Name — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:30:21 -0000

I used multiple major city names in searching for keywords such as "network" and "administrator" and each and every search comes up with " Not found" and "are you sure you are spelling that right?" Monster is a monster headache!

Re: Job Aggregators Versus Job Search Engines

Marc Drees — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:39:11 -0000

@Toby:
The fact that LinkUp spiders company sites instead of receiving feeds from those sites doesn't change the fact that LinkUp is an aggregator. And there is nothing wrong with that.

You aggregate all that data into a database to allow user to search it. The difference is in the lack of duplicates and scam jobs. Which is a very good thing. The search process and linkthrough is identical. Which is also a good thing. Let's not make more of a difference out of it than it actually is.

Re: Job Board Industry Should Have Stopped Barry Trimble Before Minnesota Had To Sue Him

leanneclc — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:57:31 -0000

I agree. It is a shame that the job board industry allows scams to continue even after complaints. I am trying to build-a-better-job-board focused specifically on work/life balance and know it will be tough to separate fact from PR from fiction.

I am going to rely on the community I am building to police it...but if I don't do it well. I expect to be called on it. Here is my take on posting jobs: http://www.careerlifeconnec...

Re: New Facebook App From LinkUp Allows Companies To Publish Jobs From Their Corporate Website On Their Company’s Facebook Page

Joanna Lord — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:01:36 -0000

Wow, I think is a great example of how companies need to be prepare for the social move toward recruiting. Instead of traditional efforts they need to be willing to experiment on the more beta applications available to them in hopes of finding highly qualified and enthusiastic candidates. Thanks for covering!