With more cell phones in this world than computers and televisions put together, many are saying that mobile recruitment will blossom in the next year.  There are 1 billion computers, 2 billion televisions and more than 5 billion cell phones globally. 

77% of smart phone users looking for jobs use a mobile job search app.  The reasons why job seekers prefer a mobile job search app:

• 36.27%   Quickly react to new job postings
• 23.79%  Being able to job search anytime
• 17.65%  Discreet way to search for a job

Who’s searching? The top 5 job app downloads by category:

• 24.8%  Entry Level & College Grad
• 20.9% Geographic focus; 54.4% Manhattan, 21% San Diego, 13% Canada, 11.6% Philadelphia
• 8.3%   Finance
• 6.2%   Healthcare
• 6.0%   Technology

Although there are 77% of job seekers using mobile job search apps only 20% of fortune 1000 companies have a mobile optimized site, this number drops further when looking at small to medium sized firms. 

A study done by a recruiting research lab, Potential Park, spoke with 350 top employers in the US, Europe & Asia and found that only 7% have a mobile version of their career website and 3% have a mobile job app. 

Since only 30% of mobile devices are smart phones, this number is expected to exceed 50% in the next 12 months, it seems that we’re only getting started.  It would only make sense for companies to have mobile career sites and possibly mobile career apps. 

A Separate Study done by Potential Park showed that out of 150 Employers that were polled, 75% of respondents said they were planning to have either a job app or mobile career website by September of 2012. 

How could mobile career sites and apps be effective?

One company, PNC Financial Services Group, has developed a mobile website targeted to college and graduate students.  The website contains employment opportunities and offers a place for candidates to leave contact info without going through a full application process.  They also have mobile interview which is similar to a voicemail system.  The mobile interview asks a question and then beeps.  The candidate then responds to the question.  The applicant can complete the interview at his or her convenience and the recruiter can listen to his or her recorded answers later. 

Most people are wondering if this is all hype but since we’ve gone from 0% of traffic from a mobile device to an average of 5%-10% in just the past 12 months, with little effort in the industry, it doesn’t seem that way.  So get ready because it’s only getting started.

To see Kristin’s Current Events Presentation, you can view the video on our Livestream channel: http://livestre.am/1bgTM

As usual, the board is impossible to read, but the notes should be covered in the bullet points above.  Feel free to reach out with comments and questions!