• by Masha Geller , September 22, 2003

In today's economy, it's no secret that the Internet is quickly becoming American's favorite job search destination, but it's not just about the medium. Location matters as well.

Online job board postings were highest in Washington D.C., Boston, San Diego and Seattle over the last four weeks, according to Corzen's latest Metro Recruitment Intensity rankings. Corzen measured the lowest number of job board postings in San Antonio, Albuquerque, Greenville, SC; and Charlotte, NC.

For the past 10 months, Corzen has tracked the number of jobs posted on the four major competitors for recruitment advertising online; CareerBuilder, Monster, HotJobs and local newspapers not affiliated with CareerBuilder. The Metro Recruitment Intensity rankings are based on total jobs posted on these four sites, weighted by total household in the metropolitan area.

Washington D.C. was the clear leader in online job postings per household averaging more than 40,000 weekly online job postings over a four-week period from August 24 to September 14. Those 40,000 online help wanted ads translate into slightly more than 18 job postings per 1,000 households in the Washington D.C metro.

Both Boston and San Diego had approximately 10 online job postings per 1,000 households each of the past four weeks. Other markets with a high online job posting per household included Los Angeles, Philadelphia and West Palm Beach. Corzen's Recruitment Intensity rankings also include the unemployment rate for each of the measured markets.

Generally, areas with lower unemployment tend to exhibit higher levels of online job postings. This relationship indicates that employers are forced to invest more heavily in recruiting activities -- such as using online job boards -- in areas where available prospective employees are relatively scarce.

Incidentally, another set of survey results released on Monday by MonsterTRAK, a career resource for college students and alumni, shows that 44% of current college seniors plan to immediately begin their job search, and 81% plan to start before they graduate. However, the daunting task of finding a job after graduation for the Class of 2004 is compounded by the fact that a vast majority of the Class of 2003 - 93% of poll respondents - are still struggling to find that coveted first job out of college.