How Canadians Use Social Media To Find Employment

Nearly 100 per cent of Canadian professionals and skilled individuals are on at least one social media network.

40% of Canadians use social media to search for jobs, according to data from Randstad Canada, a recruitment and HR firm. Of those, 60% use Facebook, 51% use LinkedIn, 30% use Google+, 20% use Twitter, and 8% use Instagram.

However, only one quarter of employers say they use social media to find talent.

According to national recruitment company Hays Canada, half of employers lack recruitment strategies and jobs are often marketed to the wrong audience. The report shows that employers still tend to favour generic online job boards, post-secondary career sites and traditional online ads, but these days candidates gravitate to social media.

“Despite the popularity of social media among professionals, Canadian employers fall well-short in their effort to connect with and attract qualified talent,” said Rowan O’Grady, President of Hays Canada. “In an economy that suffers from a skills shortage, it’s crucial that employers carefully evaluate how they’re engaging online.”

One silver lining is that 99% of recruiters are on social media. According to the North American Social Recruiting Activity Report, 97% of recruiters use LinkedIn, 27% use Twitter, and 22% use Facebook. Only 12% use all three social networks.

In terms of average number of views per job post in 2012, LinkedIn leads the pack with recruiters seeing an average of 179 views per job posted on LinkedIn, compared to 45 views per job post on Twitter, and just 10 views per job post on Facebook. Further, LinkedIn has the highest percentage of recruiters with enormous network sizes (15% have between 1,001-2,000 connections); 50% of North American recruiters using Twitter for recruiting have fewer than 50 followers, and 26% of North American recruiters using Facebook have fewer than 200 Facebook friends.

79% of job opportunities are posted on at least one social network. LinkedIn was the most popular site for posting jobs with 77% of openings shared there. Twitter came in second with 54%, followed by Facebook, which came in a distant third at just 25%.

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