More Job Seekers Use Facebook to Find Work than LinkedIn

In 2012, 88 percent of job seekers have at least one social media
profile, according to a recent survey. Surprisingly, Facebook was the
number one platform people used to find work this year, beating the
strictly professional network, LinkedIn.

From Sept. 5 through 7, recruiting platform Jobvite
surveyed 2,108 adults, 1,266 of whom already had jobs, to find out how
people felt about their employment prospects in the current economy.
Social media played an important role in establishing a professional
identity and searching for new jobs, even among the gainfully employed.

While LinkedIn and Twitter showed substantial gains in professional
use this year, Facebook is still number one, and apparently has been for
the last three years as well. Take a look at the numbers:

Job Hunters on Facebook:

• 52 percent use Facebook to help find work in 2012, up from 48 percent in 2011


• 14 percent looked for jobs on Facebook


• 15 percent changed their privacy settings with work in mind


• 17 percent mentioned their profiles on a job application or during an interview


• 63 percent are under the age of 40, 70 percent are male


• 36 percent are college graduates, 40 percent earn more than $75,000


• 1 in 5 had a friend share a job on Facebook, unchanged from 2011

Job Hunters on LinkedIn:

• 38 percent use LinkedIn to help find work in 2012, compared to 30 percent in 2011


• 19 percent had a contact share a job on LinkedIn, up from 8 percent in 2011


• 11 percent used LinkedIn to search for jobs


• 7 percent changed their privacy settings with work in mind


• 9 percent mentioned their profiles on a job application or during an interview


• 62 percent are under the age of 40, 60 percent are male


• 50 percent are college graduates, 51 percent earn more than $75,000