Online Advertisement Grows
Australian online advertisement has reached $2 billion, according to the latest IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) report. The figures for employment classifieds are not made public, but the whole classifieds section (which includes motor vehicles, recruitment and real estate) grew by 9% to $470 million.

Online Job Vacancies Increases
Good news on the job board front. The DEEWR’s Internet Vacancy Index (IVI), which measure the number of job vacancies on SEEK, MyCareer, CareerOne and Australia Job Search, grew by 6.2% in July. In annual terms, the index is 13.2% higher than in July 2009.  Read more...

Frost & Sullivan released new data on the Australian Online Classifieds market.  I asked Phil Harpur, Senior Research Manager, five questions.

Q. Revenue in the Australian employment classifieds market dropped by 21% in 2009.  Why is the drop so drastic?
A maturing market strongly linked to macro-economic factors.  Of the major online classifieds segments, employment has proved most vulnerable to economic conditions, with the volume of adverts directly linked to employers’ willingness to hire staff. Employment was by far the worst hit segment by the GFC.  Read more...

Not all doom and gloom
It’s misleading to talk in national terms, or blindly generalise the state of the job market (the media loves bad stories). Some states are still dealing with 3% and below unemployment rates. Some companies are struggling to find staff. Demand and supply of talent is a local issue, and in most cases national data does not always accurately represent the reality at the local level. By the way, national unemployment rate currently stands at 4.5%, hardly the nightmarish picture often painted by mainstream media.  Read more...