Study: Job Hunters Still Use Newspapers More Than Internet

By: E&P Staff Newspaper remains the job seeker's medium of choice, according to a new study by The Conference Board.

Three out of four job seekers use newspapers to look for work, according to the study, ahead of the three out of five that use the Internet.

The report was based on a nationally representative sample of 5,000 households surveyed monthly for The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index and was conducted on behalf of The Conference Board by TNS.

Newspapers are still the most common method of looking for a job in three of the four major regions across the U.S. and in all but the top income group, the study found. It said the West is the only area of the country where more job hunters used the Internet than newspapers.

"Despite the growth of the Internet, help-wanted advertisements in newspapers are still attracting large numbers of job seekers," Linda Barrington, research director at The Conference Board, said in a prepared statement. "Job seekers are combining newspaper ads and checking Internet job postings as part of their job search efforts. It is a minority that only uses the Internet."

Specifically, the study found that just over 75% of those looking for jobs said they used help-wanted advertisements in newspapers in their search, while more than 66% said they looked on the Internet.

Nearly 60% of job hunters combined newspaper searches with the Internet or another search method such as a headhunter.

Of those who reported using only one search method, just under half chose newspapers, double the percentage that used only the Internet.

In all four regions of the U.S., job searchers under 35 reported higher usage of the Internet than newspapers for job searches. And job hunters with household incomes of $50,000 and over use the Internet slightly more than newspapers, the study found.