75 Percent of American Workforce Looking for New Jobs

A huge number of Americans are currently looking for new job opportunities – is your recruiting team ready?

Earlier this week, Jobvite released its Social Job Seeker Survey 2012, which found that a whopping 75 percent of Americans in the workforce are looking for new job opportunities. This is a 6 percent increase from last year.

The survey polled more than 2,100 adults – 1,300 of which are considered to be in the workforce, meaning they are either employed or unemployed and looking for a job. Of those who are employed, 69 percent are looking for a new job, up from 61 percent last year.

Some other interesting findings of the survey include:

• About 33 percent of job seekers are less optimistic about finding a new job this year.
• 61 percent of job seekers think finding a job is more difficult this year.
• 41 percent of job seekers think they are overqualified for their current positions.
• 83 percent of job seekers use Facebook to look for work, a slight jump from 82 percent in 2011.
• The number of job seekers using Twitter to look for work increased from 37 percent to 46 percent over the last year.
• The number of job seekers looking for work on LinkedIn grew from 32 percent to 41 percent between 2011 and 2012.
• 88 percent of all job seekers have at least one social media profile, while 64 percent have two accounts, and 44 percent are using three or more networks.
• 24 percent of job seekers have been asked for social media info when applying for a job.

“With fierce competition for jobs, which now includes a majority of employed people on top of active job seekers, social media has become a critical tool for job hunting and career growth,” Dan Finnigan, President & CEO of Jobvite, said in a press release. “One in six job seekers polled credited a social network for leading to their current/most recent employment.

“Maintaining your online presence and keeping employment top-of-mind at all times are vital to professional success,” he continued. “With technology and social networking rapidly evolving, those who don’t engage through Facebook, LinkedIn and/or Twitter will quickly find themselves falling behind.”