The national job advertising market is taking its toll on the big job board companies. Indeed announced last week that it it laying off 1,000 people mainly in the U.S.. The cuts will come from R&D and go to market teams.
At this point we have likely seen the peak of Indeed’s power in our space. They have been throwing up a variety of new products and rev models in the past few years and have failed to gain much traction with them. Essentially, they became too reliant on employers who were throwing money at them. When that stopped, indeed became overblown with too many employees.
With the founders of indeed long gone, the kind of product innovation that catapulted them to #1 is no longer there, so no one is left to guide them into a slow hiring market. I cringed at some of the stuff they were trying.
Indeed missed the boat on monetizing seekers which would have given them an additional revenue stream. Why they didn’t introduce some kind of resume writing service is baffling to me. There are a number of AI resume platforms job seekers are starting to use (and pay for) so why isn’t Indeed playing in this space? It’s a natural fit for any job board.
The company is now 20 years old and many are speculating their long downward slide that happened to Monster as well, has begun. However along with Linkedin, they are still one of the biggest sources of traffic.
One commenter on my social media post said the following;
Sorry to hear about this…hate to hear about the layoffs as many of the employees have been loyal and long term… Not surprising though. I’ve Been predicting this for a while now, with all their crazy pricing tactics and product changes that are turning customers off. Indeed sadly did not learn from their predecessors and is at risk of being the next monster, hot jobs, careerbuilder… career site to get greedy only to mess their model up and become irrelevant.
Should Niche Boards Worry?
To me this is an opportunity for niche job boards to gain market share. Indeed has become too expensive/complicated for many employers so now’s the time to reiterate your value…quality applicants for less.
A couple of industry execs agree with me. They also commented on my Linkedin post;
Cliff Jurkeiwciz, VP of Strategy at hiring platform Phemom said: “This isn’t a surprise. The overall decline in the big job boards has been well predicted. Specialized boards are the way to go. Yes, the economic decline has an impact, but there are still about 9 million jobs. Creating a real, valuable experience for job seekers, with great insights and ROI for employers is key. The big boards simply cannot justify their cost (or existence) anymore.”
Lewis Greene, founder of DentalJobs.com: “Employers want to know they are getting value for money, this is where specialized job boards will come into their own in my opinion, employer branding/awareness is very important for companies at the moment.”
Sean Celli, Talent Leader at T-mobile: “The human impact is so disappointing, as the hits do seem to keep coming. However, I’ve not included many big job boards in my broader strategies for years, as the match / return for most roles is exceedingly low, decreasing productivity for under resourced staffing teams.
I’m not sure LinkedIn Easy Apply is much different , FWIW, but it’s in an ecosystem that recruiters live within much of their daily lives. The boutique boards that connect your Employer Brand story to the right job seeker is far more efficient.”
If you asked the average talent acquisition pro if they want a more cost effective tool than indeed they will say yes. Sites like Jobcase, Talent.com etc should move to become the ‘anti-indeed’ and try to gain market share by offering a simpler, cheaper way to advertise jobs.
And for niche job boards, keep building your like minded audience so you can offer these employers a viable source of targeted candidates.
Ziprecruiter is in a similar situation with another big revenue drop in their most recent quarter.
Ziprecruiter has not introduced a new feature in a long time, hasn’t made any acquisitions, and just seems stagnant. Indeed can’t innovate. So what’s next?
We could see new a new player emerge to finally challenge them in the coming few years. Some kind of AI driven job search tool is likely coming.
Stay tuned.
