Employers currently find one in four new employees through newspaper job advertisements. This is the surprising finding of a survey carried out by the Institute for Labour Market and Profession Research (IAB). In the year 2004 when the demand for new staff was lacking only 20% of vacancies were filled through newspaper job ads.
The study showed that about one quarter of all new hires is made via the staff already existing or personal contacts. Thus, informal ways of recruiting new staff have slightly lost in importance. “Even though it is true that professional and social networking is still important for both employers and job seekers, it is also true that in times of rising demand for new staff businesses more and more look for staff externally and use expensive methods in order to find them such as newspaper ads“, is the conclusion drawn by the labour market experts in Nuremberg.
Direct contact with job agencies and the online job market of the Federal Labour Agency account for 12% of all new hires. Another 12% is staffed via other online job markets. 13% of all staffings are the result of unsolicited applications. On the other hand, only few vacancies are staffed via in-house job ads, internships (2% each) or due to ads placed by job seekers (1%).
At the end of 2007 about 14.500 companies took part in the above representative survey. A table containing the most important findings is available online. 