Career change is a numbers game. If you want to play the game, start here! Read the statistics and then shape your job search strategy accordingly.

Successful Seekers

1. Online Marketing (online resume posting) yields an 8 percent chance of success in uncovering the next opportunity. This rate matches those of 2003 when this strategy was still in its infancy.
2. Referrals from within the organization (18 percent) and outside the organization (9 percent) are the most successful ways to land the opportunity.
3. A blended strategy of using social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, helps identify referral opportunities.
4. A downward trend in the overall effectiveness of recruiters since 2005 continues.
5. For those earning more than $100,000, networking is clearly the most successful strategy, with 50 percent of candidates surfacing the opportunity in this way.
6. Published openings, with a 44 percent effectiveness rating, are the most significant way of learning about an opportunity for those earning less than $60,000.
7. For the 50-plus age group, networking continues to be more important with 46 percent of these respondents saying it led to their opportunities.
8. As for gender effect, men in the sample were more likely to learn about opportunities through networking, while women were more successful with published openings

Time Allocation

According to a recent Climber.com poll of 250 new members who earn $50,000 or more, most job seekers spend the majority of their time–over 50 percent of it–on two activities: searching for and applying for new positions. The numbers break down as follows:

1. Searching for Positions Online 29.94%
2. Applying to Positions 27.28%
3. Networking 24.11%
4. Researching Companies 12.89%
5. Working with a Recruiter 5.56%

This allocation of time isn’t necessarily the most effect way to spend your time. I would prioritize the list like this

1. Networking 35%
2. Researching Companies 25%
3. Applying to Positions 25%
4. Searching for Positions Online 10%
5. Working with a Recruiter 5%

Online Presence

1. According to a study commissioned by Microsoft, 79 percent of employers now conduct an online search of applicants. Fully 70 percent say they have turned down applicants by what they found online. However, only 7 percent of job applicants were concerned about their online reputations.
2. According to career coach Julie Jansen, 85% of hiring managers use social networking sites like LinkedIn to look for potential candidates who’ve been referred by other professionals.
3. 31% of people have never conducted a search on their own name using a search engine to learn what is visible to potential employers. Are you one of them?

Job Competition

1. More jobs were lost in 2008 than were created in the last 5 years. In 2009, more jobs were lost than existed in the  Great Depression.
2. Talent Technology predicts its industry leading resume processing software, Resume Mirror, will process 80 million resumes in 2009.. This number is equivalent to 26% of the US population and equal to one resume for every second employed person
3. One study reported that an average of 300 job seekers apply to any given job posting online.
4. 4 million online posting per month

Company Concerns

1. Human capital makes up 77% of total expenses
2. 40% of job cuts announced are in the fall
3. Only 18% of Fortune 100 companies send emails when the position is full (http://www.ere.net/2010/05/13/president-orders-end-to-job-seeker-black-hole/)
4. 35% of employers are now using your credit report history as a means of judging personal responsibility
   only an average of 36% of those job hunters interviewed regularly send thank-you notes while 75% of employers appreciate or expect the notes
5. Over 90% of employers seek their assistant’s opinion when interviewing and making hiring decisions
   60% of large companies do salary planning in the fall

Targeting

1. Sending 40 – 50 resumes to targeted companies will be far more productive than sending resumes blindly to every job that pops up on a job board. Statistics show that only 1% of job seekers are successful using the latter method.

Networking

1. Face-to-face meeting and telephone were most prevalent forms of networking. Email and online networking only account for 6%.
2. Networking was the most effective method at 34% and applying online was second with a 26% success rate. Among networking approaches, referrals from within the organization (18%) and outside the organization (9%) are the most successful ways to land the opportunity. (Impact Group 2010)
3. 26.7% of external hires made by organizations came from referrals, making it the number one external source of hiring for the participating firms.
4. Above the $100K mark, networking accounts for 50% of surfaced opportunities. Published openings are the most significant way of learning about an opportunity for those earning less than $60K with 44% effectiveness. For those in between $60K & $100K, networking yielded 46% effectiveness and published openings accounted for 31% effectiveness
5. For those 50+, networking has a 46% effectiveness and recruiters become LESS effective dropping from 13% to 5%
6. Historically, men have become more likely to learn about opportunities through networking and women have been more successful with published openings

Opportunity Sources

1. 46% of men and 39% of women find their jobs through networking. The hire your income, the more effective networking becomes.
2. 22.3% of new hires were attributed to the employer’s website in particular (CareerXroads 2010).
3. Whereas 44% of those earning less that $60K reported learning about the opportunity through a published opening, it only accounted for 31% for those in the income ranges of $60-100K and 29% for those earning $100K+
4. 45% of your leads will come from using the internet as your lead generator—8% resume posting, 31% online published openings, 6% email/online networking
5. Online resume posting only yields an 8% chance of success of uncovering the next opportunity (4% from employers and 4% from recruiters)
6. Published openings effectiveness increased to 34%, in spite of a significant drop in online posting of 36%.
7. Print ads account for 3% of openings found, versus 31% of online postings. Not surprisingly, employers’ posting are the most effective means to learn about online openings at 24% while recruiter online postings accounted for 7%.
8. 46% of successful job seekers made a direct application to the employer. (26% applied online, 10% to hiring manager, and 10% to HR department)
9. Executive recruiters account for 18% of the chance of connecting a candidate with an opportunity and 15% of successfully landing the opportunity. In 2005, they were responsible for 23% of connections, but they have become less and less effective. (Nobody can market you like you)

Other Stats

1. 65-70% of jobs are gained through personal referrals or networking connections
2. According to April 2008 figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, the length of the typical job search is 16.9 weeks
3. 90% of recruiting firms do a Google search on candidates
4. According to surveys cited by David Wessel in The Wall Street Journal, “The unemployed in the United States spend 40 minutes a day looking for work and 3 hours and 20 minutes a day watching TV.”
   the average job search in America now lasts 33 weeks, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data from April 2010. Thirty-three weeks — more than 8 months — is the longest it has taken Americans to find work in the history of this monthly survey, which dates to 1948.
5. Major Job boards boast a measly 1 to 4% average response rate. That’s a lot of resumes to send out just to hear nothing back!
6. According to the Wall Street Journal, 90% of jobs are filled through employee referrals
7. At the end of last year, LinkedIn had 33 million members, and there were signs many were stepping up their activity. The amount of time individuals spent online increased 22 percent since the start of the year and the number of recommendations soared 65 percent, according to Kay Luo, a spokeswoman for LinkedIn. (http://staringfrog.com/jobs/2010/05/take-days-off-of-your-job-search/)
8. From 2008 to 2009, the number of hiring managers using social networking websites to screen job seekers more than doubled from 22% to 45%, according to yearly surveys from CareerBuilder. Put another way, nearly one in two hiring managers uses social media to recruit or screen candidates for jobs today.
9. More than a third of hiring managers (35%) immediately screened out candidates based on what they found on candidates’ social networking profiles. Only 18% of hiring managers polled by CareerBuilder last year said they were encouraged to hire a candidate due to his or her online presence.