Half of all Job Seekers Aren’t in it for the Long Haul, Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Study Shows

San Mateo, Calif., February 5, 2015 — Jobvite, the comprehensive recruiting solution for the world’s fastest growing companies, today announced the results of its 2015 Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Study. Now in its sixth year, the study provides an in-depth survey of the career attitudes and job seeking activities of the American workforce.

This year’s study explores how the behavior and attitudes of job seekers has shifted as a growing economy puts job seekers in control of their future. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, employers added jobs in every month of 2014 — nearly 3 million in total — making 2014 the best year for jobs since 1999. Reinforcing this growth, the Job Seeker Nation Study shows that the number of job seekers who stated that it was difficult to land a job has decreased by 43% since 2012.

The economic upswing is good for job seekers, but creates a set of challenges for companies looking to retain top talent. The study’s findings show that half of employed job seekers see their current position as “entry level” or a “stepping stone” — and this number soars to 71% for 18-29 year olds. This may contribute to the fact that millennials are twice as likely as those in their thirties, and four times as likely as those in their forties, to change jobs after just three years. For the modern worker job tenure is often short-lived, and job satisfaction doesn’t always translate into company loyalty, as 45% of respondents are satisfied in their jobs but still open to new job opportunities. Job seekers today must constantly market their skills and experience, because the next job opportunity could come knocking at any time.

Other key findings include:

Money talks: it’s the most influential factor both in deciding to leave a job and in choosing a new one.

• Job seekers primarily leave their jobs for higher compensation or better growth opportunities. Overall, 32% stated that insufficient compensation is why they left their last position, with 16% citing limited growth opportunities as their reason for leaving.
• An increase in compensation has the biggest impact on job seekers’ decisions to take a new job at 61%, with location (42%) and work/life balance (38%) the next most important factors.

Social media is a staple in the job hunt today.

• Recruiters and job seekers aren’t on the same page: 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn, but only 40% of social media job seekers use the network in their job search.
• Facebook remains the network of choice for job seekers: 67% of social media job seekers used Facebook to find their most recent job. LinkedIn is more popular among highly educated social job seekers.
• Not all job seekers are completely honest on social media: 31% of social job seekers have inflated their skills on Twitter, and 27% of social job seekers have fabricated job references on Facebook.

The rise of mobile has made job seeking an anywhere, anytime activity.

• This year, 47% of millennials used mobile in their job
• Mobile is powering job seekers to look for jobs more openly: 41% in bed, 38% job shop during their commute, 36% in a restaurant, 30% do it at work and 18% search in the restroom.
• Compared to the previous year, job searching on the go is more common.

Moreover, job seekers are spending a fair amount of time looking for jobs on mobile; 42% spend an average of 10 minutes or more engaging in job searching activities on mobile devices each day.

“The study further confirms that the economic upswing is having concrete results for job seekers. Now they have more options, everywhere they look,” said Dan Finnigan, CEO of Jobvite. “Companies must cast a wider net to capture this talent. Today, job seekers are using social and mobile to apply for jobs and gain insight into a company’s culture and values. Ignoring these platforms isn’t an option: companies must showcase their brand and be everywhere job seekers are.”

On behalf of Jobvite, the polling company, inc., conducted a nationwide online omnibus survey, which was fielded November 13-17, 2014. Of the 2,084 adults that were polled, 1,282 were participants in the U.S. labor force. Data was weighted so that demographics of this audience closely matched the nationwide population of adults with respect to gender, age, and region.

Previous Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Surveys:

Jobvite 2014 Survey
Jobvite 2013 Survey
Jobvite 2012 Survey
Jobvite 2011 Survey
Jobvite 2010 Survey

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