Americans Turn to Career Sites During Economic Downturn

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a June 2009 overview of the career services & development category based on data from comScore Media Metrix and comScore Marketer. The study revealed that more than 65 million Americans visited the category in June, representing a 10-percent increase versus year ago, ranking it as one of the top-growing site categories. Seven of the top ten sites in the category achieved double-digit gains during that period.

CareerBuilder LLC led the category with 21.7 million unique visitors, followed by Yahoo! HotJobs with 17.9 million visitors (up 23 percent vs. year ago) and Monster.com with 14.5 million visitors (up 6 percent). The next three sites in the ranking have each achieved substantial growth in the past year, with Indeed growing 59 percent to 8 million visitors, Job.com Sites up 46 percent to 7.4 million visitors, and SnagAJob up 48 percent to 4.7 million visitors.

“Job and career-related resources continue to be one of the fastest-growing categories online, which is not surprising given the current state of the economy and the number of people seeking job opportunities and career advice,” said Jeff Hackett, comScore senior vice president. “The top three sites in the category – CareerBuilder, HotJobs and Monster – have maintained their leadership positions for several years now, but there are also a few upstarts in the industry making some noise. Certainly with millions of Americans reevaluating their careers right now there is opportunity for continued growth and innovation in this segment of the online marketplace.” Review the complete list of career portals in this survey via the comScore web site

Monster.com’s Nation-wide Keep America Working Tour Swings into New Orleans -- Nearly 35,000 Qualified Job Seekers Have Attended Events to Date

The national tour of the Keep America Working career fairs sponsored by Monster.com®, the leading global online career and recruitment resource and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW), travels back to the Southeast this week with a stop in New Orleans, Louisiana, tomorrow, June 30. The Keep America Working Tour includes more than 140 stops across the nation throughout 2009. Since its kick-off in Boston at the end of February, the tour has featured 1,132 employers with more than 24,650 jobs to fill and nearly 35,000 qualified job seekers ready to fill them. Tour stops have included job fairs in 30 major markets in 25 states. The nearly 25,000 jobs represented at the fairs are backed up by tens of thousands of jobs listed on Monster.com in these 30 metropolitan areas.

At the core of the Keep America Working Tour is Monster’s mission to help rebuild the American workforce. In a break with tradition for both Monster and other job fair organizers, Monster’s Keep America Working job fairs are free of charge to both job seekers and Monster employers with current job openings, to eliminate any cost barrier, and encourage the greatest number of employers with available jobs to link face-to-face with people who need those jobs. See Monster.com of the tour schedule

US SBA and IEEE-USA Partner to Promote Innovation, Job Growth

Administrator Karen G. Mills has signed a strategic alliance memorandum with the IEEE-USA designed to expand opportunities for innovative small business entrepreneurs. The IEEE-USA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is a non-profit association of more than 200,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals whose technical interests are established in electrical engineering, computer science, and related disciplines dedicated to fostering technological innovation and excellence.

“The SBA and IEEE-USA have joined together to help some of the nation’s most innovative entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses,” said Administrator Mills. “This cooperative agreement means that more technical businesses will be able to benefit from SBA programs, services and financial assistance as they create the jobs of the 21st century.”
IEEE-USA is a leading professional association for the advancement of technology in areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics among others. See the joint US SBA-IEEE press release for complete details

Federal Antitrust Probe Targets Tech Giants, Sources Say

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether some of the nation's largest technology companies violated antitrust laws by negotiating the recruiting and hiring of one another's employees, according to two sources with knowledge of the review.

The review, which is said to be in its preliminary stages, is focused on the search engine giant Google; its competitor Yahoo; Apple, maker of the popular iPhone; and the biotech firm Genentech, among others, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Justice Department officials declined to comment about an investigation, as did officials from Google and Yahoo. Apple and Genentech could not be reached for comment. See the complete Washington Post article online

Preparing Your Career Campaign Correspondence

Yes, a resume is an essentail tool for landing the next job in your career campaign. Nonetheless, preparing your complete portfolio of career campaign correspondence can give you a competitive edge in the marketplace and also increase the efficiency of your campaign.

Biography: One page summary written in third-person style which summaries your major career accomplishments (Audience - Hiring Managers)

Career Campaign Summary: One page summary of your target positions, industries, locations and companies (Audience - Fellow job seekers and networking contacts)

Recruiter Memo: One-half page email describing your target positions, industries, locations and a brief explanation of your past experience (Audience - Third party retained or contingency recruiters)

Resume: Two page chronological or functional description of your future career goal and relevant previous experience including 2-3 Situation/Action/Results (SAR) statements for each position (Audience - Primary: Human Resources, Secondary: Hiring Managers)

Thank You Letter: One page memo summarizing your relevant experience, interest and motivation and key priorities for a recent job interview (Audience - Primary: Hiring Managers & Influencers, Secondary: Human Resources) This letter should be sent within one business day of your interview

The Cover Letters web site is a good place to start and has many samples