Graduate job seekers more likely to utilise social media

Two recent surveys have come up with contrasting results on whether job seekers in the UK are using social media to find employment.

The Kelly Global Workforce Survey has revealed that only 20% of UK job seekers use social media to find work; making them amongst the least likely in the world to do so.

However a poll by graduate careers website WikiJob found that around two thirds of its users are on Linkedin, suggesting that graduates are more familiar with the job seeking potential of social media than the wider UK population.

The Kelly Global Workforce Survey found that only 20% of British job seekers search for jobs on social media networks and only 1% of those surveyed had obtained a job through social networking. This places Britain 25th in the Kelly Workforce Survey’s global rankings.

In contrast WikiJob’s poll showed that around 63% of respondents are on Linkedin. This suggests that graduates, who are more familiar with social media, are more willing to use it as a job seeking tool. These graduates may be more aware of the potential of social media as both a form of self advertisement and a way of networking with employers.

Ed Mellett, co-founder of WikiJob, said: ‘These results are evidence of the way in which graduates may have an advantage as the employment landscape changes. HR managers and recruiters generally agree that using social media can be an extremely fruitful job seeking method. More and more employers are utilising social media to find out more about applicants before the interview process. Networking online will give graduates access to an otherwise hidden job market, and the results from our user poll indicate it is likely that a large proportion of graduates are already actively pursuing these opportunities. Maintaining a professional presence on Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook will give graduates job seekers a major advantage.’

Source: Onrec.com, Monday 16th May 2011