Jobvite, a recruiting platform for the social web based in Burlingame, California, published results of a new survey showing that job seekers are increasingly turning to social media in an effort to find employment.

Jobvite survey shows job hunters increasingly turning to social media. image source: Wikimedia Commons – Michael Rafael

Jobvite’s survey found that 22 million Americans found jobs over the past year through their contacts on social networking websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, up from 14 million Americans in 2010.  Surprisingly, a whopping 83 percent of respondents said it was the social networking site Facebook, that helped them find their job, not the professional networking website LinkedIn, which 46 percent of respondents credited with their successful employment search.  Thirty-six percent of those taking part in the survey said Twitter helped them in their job search. Thirty one percent said they tapped into all three of the leading social networking websites in their job hunt.

Dan Finnegan, CEO and president of Jobvite explained: “Socially savvy job seekers have an advantage over their fellow job hunters, and it’s paying off.”  Jobvite enlisted the service of the polling company inc.| WomanTrend to determine how job seekers are using social media. The polling company inc. | WomanTrend surveyed 2,049 adults between October 24^th – 27^th, including 844 who were either unemployed and not actively looking for a job, retired, or students. The survey found that, based on this representative sample, 69 percent of Americans are looking for new employment, regardless of their employment status, and 54 percent of those actively looking for work used Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

About David John Walker

Dave has a B.A. in Mathematics, loves writing and reading about the latest developments in technology and social media, and has been working as a freelance writer for five years.