An Internet job-posting company survey finds wide daily variances in when job seekers are looking at ads
In 2005, U.S. companies were estimated to have spent nearly $300 billion on advertising, with much of that allocated to employment advertising … the familiar “help wanted” ads in classified and display formats, and in media from the Internet to the daily newspaper.
Wouldn’t it make sense to place those ads on days when job-seekers are most likely to look at them?
One hint at what those days are comes from San Ramon, California-based eQuest, a company that manages job postings on the Internet for more than 11,000 companies, reaching 200 countries and territories.
The company has tracked more than a million of their job postings since Jan. 1, 2006. They counted how many were viewed on specific days of the week, and how many were then clicked on to go to the next step of filling out an application.
“The report clearly confirms,” said an eQuest release, “that candidates are searching for jobs between Monday and Thursday, with a major drop in activity on Friday and continuing through the weekend.”
Out of 100% of job-viewing activity in a given week, the distribution ran as follows:
Monday: 17.5%
Tuesday: 17.8%
Wednesday: 18.1%
Thursday: 16.8%
Friday: 12.3%
Saturday: 8.6%
Sunday: 9.0%
Based on these results, eQuest advises its clients to post early in the week for best results.
Best Times of Day for Job Ads
The eQuest study also recorded the times of day that jobseekers were looking. Ad viewing showed a definite spike between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and again during 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Lunchtime would seem understandable, but what about that late afternoon activity?
“Maybe it followed a particularly hard day,” quipped one manager.
The eQuest survey was based only on Internet job postings, not the traditional newspaper variety. But it at least raises the question of whether the millions spent by employers on those massive Sunday newspaper “Help Wanted” sections are still the best way to go.