Using The Internet May Harm, Not Help, People Find A Job

[Township75]

The punch line is everyone thinks the Internet is a great new way to help people find a job. But it really is not," said Fountain, who used a sample of monthly U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics data of 50,000 American households to track two groups of unemployed workers. Supplemental surveys by the bureau collected information on computer ownership and usage, access to and usage of the Internet and the methods people used to find jobs.

The differences between people who used the Internet as part of their job search strategy and those who didn't were small, but statistically significant among a sample of more than 650 people who were unemployed and looking for work, according to Fountain. In the first group who reported being unemployed in August 1998, those who utilized the Internet were 3 percent more likely to have found a job within three months than those who did not use it.

However, among the second group who reported being out of work in December 2000, those individuals who used the Internet were 4 percent less likely to have found a job in three months than non-users.


full story is here
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030814071955.htm

[REP]

1. Additionally

Employers search the net using the email contact address on applications. Might want to keep a "clean" unused-for-posting address on the application.

[rock]

2. My last two jobs were found on the internet

Make of it what you will.

[SOteric]

3. I suspect the real problem

is less to do with the internet itself as a tool (which I regard as very valuable) and more to do with the high number of numbskulls who don't update, delete or change their info. So, you see a lot of resumes of people who are already happily employed and adds for jobs that were filled 3 months ago.

[short bus president]

4. My guess is that

many people who try using the web as an employment resource end up frustrated by all the "earn $30/hr stuffing envelopes at home" crap that spams up searches, thus are tipped towards the "discouraged would-be worker" side.

[BigMcLargehuge]

5. And how!

I wish Monster and the other job search sites would eliminate these bullshit scams and pyramid schemes. When I am searching for Instructional Designer or Editor I don't need to wade through ten ads for freakin Amway sales.

I use the newspaper more than anything.

[disgruntella]

6. the internet is just one medium among many

This headline ticks me off. I agree that people should use personal contacts and a variety of non-Internet sources in their job search. Maybe if a person used the Internet as the SOLE source for their job search, their chances of finding a job would go down. And obviously people need to distinguish between "quantity" and "quality" of information.

But saying that the use of the Internet "harms" job seekers is like saying reading the want ads "harms" them. And the latter point would never be made. The former point *does* get made because people still see the Internet as a panacea or as "the devil."

Pet peeve alert! :mad: