The online recruiting industry is an exciting and dynamic landscape to work in. Despite the rising fear of recession and geopolitical uncertainty, the industry has been steadily growing in demand for specialised solutions in a fragmented market. Additionally, the potential of leveraging ecosystem partners and AI to provide smarter, faster, and more efficient solutions for job seekers and recruiters alike is an exciting prospect. 

With the right approach, online recruiting can provide a powerful tool for employers to build the teams they need to succeed and for candidates to find meaningful work. The industry is ripe with opportunities for those with the right skills and drive to make a difference.

In 2023 we foresee the following trends:

1. Growing demand despite economic headwinds 
2. Opportunity for job ad price adjustments
3. The (slow) rise of programmatic job advertising 
4. Ecosystem partners and competitors to watch
5. Incorporating Artificial Intelligence: ChatGPT & Co 

#1. Growing demand despite economic headwinds

The European Commission has projected the EU as a whole will see a growth rate of 0.8% in 2023 therefore “narrowly” avoiding the plunge into recession. This will create growing optimism for the broader economic context. Sectors will still be impacted, some more than others.  Based on SIA research, the shortage of talent has peaked in 2022 and will continue to stay high for many sectors. 75% of companies were reporting difficulty in finding the talent they need. This highlights that job boards will continue to play an important role in helping employers find candidates.
Although we see an ongoing consolidation of players in the market, online recruiting continues to stay fragmented across geographies and industry verticals, which leads to a growing need and potential for specialised regional or industry-specific job platforms. 

#2. Opportunity for job ad price adjustments

Our leading job board owners have experienced a slower growth of job ads posted, but prices per job may increase. Adding employer branding products will shape the unique value proposition of job boards to help clients as they become the “trusted advisor” to employers in need. 

It is a good timing for price adjustments, but be careful not to use it for simply increasing margins. The competitors’ landscape in the job board industry globally is growing and to remain competitive you must continuously invest into the branding and the marketing of your job board. You can find more insights on 6 common business models and pricing strategies for job board business in one of our white papers: Job Board Playbook.   

#3. The (slow) rise of programmatic job advertising 

Programmatic advertising and performance based reach have received a lot of media coverage this year. The promise to disrupt the recruitment industry has been overestimated but depending on the sector, job level or volume, it will add an interesting extension of your product offering. The industry will try to improve the quality and conversion rate of performance based traffic acquisition, meaning that more providers will arise in Europe to offer its services. Taking advantage of performance based reach to ensure the balance of quantity and quality of candidates and applications will help you to thrive in 2023.

#4. Ecosystem partners and competitors to watch

Google and Meta will be important sources of traffic to look to. Both brands have positioned themselves as ecosystem partners for sourcing candidates. Google has sunsetted some of its HR products like Google hire and also seems to pull back on its multilingual Google Job Cloud solutions, while it heavily invests in making Google for Job a better experience. Facebook also shut down Facebook Jobs at the end of 2022 in the US and Canada and will instead remain a partner for running paid campaigns for passive candidates. Indeed and Linkedin on the other hand have recruitment advertising at the core of their business and will be important competitors to follow as their market penetration grows to the majority of countries globally. Together these two platforms contributed to almost 50% of the overall online recruitment revenue generated in 2022. However, shaping your unique value proposition, is more important than to imitate these competitors (Indeed, Linkedin), as we explain in our Job Board Strategy Debunk. Spending a good amount of focus on SEO and branding options will help you to take advantage of the ecosystem that your job board is in.

#5. Incorporating Artificial Intelligence: ChatGPT & Co

AI, especially subsets like Machine Learning or Deep Learning have not replaced any of the incumbent providers yet. Having expertise and our own AI-powered matching technology as part of our platform offering, we see AI and its applications as tools to improve your service. From automated classification of jobs to boosting programmatic reach. AI will help to save cost while getting better search results for candidates improving the overall UX. The rise of ChatGPT on the other hand promises to be a game changer in many industries. For job boards, it could be potentially used to improve job descriptions according to some experts' opinions in the market, as “the job ad is almost always something that can be improved”. Putting legal concerns aside, the vision of creating a better experience for candidates by applying AI and the ease of access to AI applications with the likes of ChatGPT will drive many ideas in our market in 2023.

Closing remarks

2023 promises to be an exciting year for online recruitment and job boards. Despite economic headwinds, the demand for specialised solutions in a fragmented market remains strong. Job boards will have the opportunity to adjust pricing and add employer branding products to their value proposition. Programmatic advertising and performance based reach will add an interesting extension of service options, while the emergence of AI applications such as ChatGPT offer the potential to improve job descriptions and the overall UX. To stay competitive, job boards should invest in SEO and marketing, and leverage ecosystem partners such as Google and Meta. With the right approach, job boards can provide a powerful tool for employers to build the teams they need to succeed and for candidates to find meaningful work.

These are exciting times ahead.

Jobiqo enables media brands and publishers worldwide to build next-generation job boards and career marketplaces to engage talent. By combining the benefits of a scalable SaaS platform and the power of our AI-enabled Smart Matching technology, Jobiqo customers can quickly react to changing market demands and stay competitive in an ever-challenging market. 

Authors:

Martin Lenz was appointed as Jobiqo’s CEO in the spring of 2017. Before joining the team, Martin had built up vast experience spanning over nine years for the management consultancy firm Accenture, working on a range of international projects.

Professionally, Martin began his career as an Analyst in 2008, reaching the role of Senior Manager by the end of his tenure at the company. As digitalisation progressed, his consultancy began to focus on the development of new products and services. The main focus of his work were clients in healthcare and public administration

Academically, Martin holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from Johannes Kepler-University of Linz (Austria) and wrote his diploma thesis on a recruiting project co-operating with Jobiqo. In 2015, he studied Entrepreneurship, Tech Innovation, Marketing and Leadership at Baruch College in New York.

Source: Jobiqo

Title Photo: Unsplash