Facebook pushes social job applications: Challenge LinkedIn

Sina Science and technology news Beijing time, November 15 morning, Facebook launched a Wednesday job application called social jobs app, officially into the job market, to the market's dominant LinkedIn challenge. Facebook's social-application applications include recruitment notices from human resources companies such as Monster and BranchOut, which now list 1.7 million jobs. The app is part of a social job-search partnership (Social Jobs Partnership), which was founded in October 2011 by Facebook in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor and three non-profit labor organizations. The release of social job applications marks a shift in Facebook's business strategy, which has been focused on personal social networks in the past. LinkedIn has positioned itself as the dominant market in the professional social networking site. If social-job applications are successful, Facebook may be a more direct competitor to LinkedIn in the professional social marketplace. Shares in LinkedIn fell slightly in Wednesday from the previous trading day. As of September 30, the number of users in LinkedIn was about 187 million. Given that monster's own job site is its lifeline, investors are apparently more worried about Monster's help in developing job applications. Under the influence of such worries, Monster's share price fell 5% in Wednesday. On the same day, Facebook's shares rose nearly 13% per cent, but the rise was the result of a 800 million-share ban on Facebook, making some market analysts elusive. In a statement, Facebook said the company's idea of a social job application was due to the economic malaise: few problems with economic growth are more important than finding the right job for a qualified job seeker. In this case, we know that the power of social media-connecting friends, family and society-can have a huge impact on job hunting. Earlier this month, the Labor Department's monthly employment report showed that the United States added 171,000 jobs in October, but the jobless rate climbed from 7.8% in September to 7.9%. Facebook's social applications currently cover applications from HR companies such as Monster, BranchOut, DirectEmployers Association, Work4labs and Jobvite. Job seekers can search for jobs in categories such as industry, keywords, and locations. Facebook says it can help job seekers: About half of employers use Facebook services in their recruitment process, according to a survey of social job-search partnerships, where 54% of employers surveyed Say they expect Facebook to play an increasingly important role in the future recruiting market. (Qing Chen)