An online survey by whatjobsite.com (mission: ‘Making a success of online recruitment’) reveals the extent to which UK job-boards have been hit by the recession. Some 43 senior-level job-boarders participated in the survey, which was conducted during the summer.

Over half of the respondents had experienced a decline in business (56%) and a reduction in marketing spend (58%), while two-thirds (68%) had seen a decrease in job applications and 70% reported receiving fewer job-postings from recruitment consultants.

But although there have been fewer jobs around, there’s been a surge in online applications, with almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) reporting an increase in unique users and 58% a rise in CV uploads.

And optimism abounds: a third (33%) of respondents have already seen signs of ‘green shoots’, while nearly three-quarters (73%) are generally positive about the coming year.

Looking at broader market issues the survey also notes that, while in previous recessions the online recruitment sector was largely insulated from any negative impact by the structural move of recruitment advertising from print to online, “this time it’s different” since job-boards have been fully exposed to the damaging effects of business and economic conditions as a mature business sector.

With an estimated 15% of job-boards now seen as ‘zombie job-boards’ (effectively out of business, but maintaining the appearance of activity by pulling jobs from job-posting services like Broadbean and Idubu), the going looks to be particularly tough for the market’s smaller independents, many of which could struggle for survival or eventually be lost.

But few players see further rationalisation as a bad thing, with most believing that there are still too many job-boards, which merely puts pressure on price and service to the detriment of the sector as a whole. So while there might be fewer of them around this time next year time, those that survive might be the better for it.

● The whatjobsite survey also records a major decline in job-board revenues from the recruitment ad agency sector, with “very little for job-boarders to be positive about”. All those consulted reported revenues from this sector as “significantly down”, with many job-boarders expressing the opinion that it faces “terminal decline”. That said, just over half (54%) were positive about potential growth from the sector over the coming year.

Courtesy of RI5

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