Online Jobs Players Area Of Strength In Very Weak Job Market

According to government statistics, no jobs were added last month in the U.S. Unemployment rates in the country remained flat at 9.1% and last month was labeled to be the weakest employment report for the economy since September 2010. Unemployment has been more than 9% in all but two months since May 2009. Economists estimate the July–September quarter growth in the country to be close to 2%, a number not high enough to generate more jobs.

Monster’s Financials
Meanwhile, despite – or perhaps because of – a weak job market in the U.S., Monster.com (NYSE:MWW) saw Q2 revenues grow 25% over the year to $270 million. Net income for the quarter of $0.09 per share was significantly better than previous year’s loss of $0.02 per share. The market was looking for revenues of $266.1 million with EPS of $0.08 for the quarter.

By segment, Careers revenues of $236 million grew 28% over the year. Within North America, revenues from Careers grew 26% over the year to $123 million, while international Career revenues grew 31% to $113 million. Internet Advertising & Fees revenues of $34 million grew 8% over the year.

Monster expects current quarter revenues to grow 20%-25% over the year to $260 million-$270 million with an EPS of $0.10-$0.14. For the year, they are projecting revenues of $1.07 million-$1.12 billion with EPS of $0.40-$0.48. The market was looking for revenues of $279 million for the quarter with EPS of $0.12 and the year’s revenues at $1.11 billion with EPS of $0.42.

Monster’s Facebook App
In an attempt to compete with LinkedIn’s growing popularity, Monster launched a professional social networking app on Facebook, BeKnown. The app lets Facebook users build a professional profile, apply for jobs, and get recommendations while earning badges and enhancing their online professional visibility. They also expanded the app to mobile devices by launching both Android and iPhone versions.

Monster Expands to the Cloud
Monster also expanded into the cloud by launching SeeMore, the first ever cloud-based semantic search and analytics platform for managing resume databases within an organization. SeeMore is based on Monster’s 6Sense semantic search technology to let companies search for candidates from talent pools across their organization.

The stock is trading at $8.36 with a market capitalization of $1.03 billion. It touched a 52-week high of $25.90 earlier this year.

CareerBuilder’s Mobile Expansion
Other internet job sites in the country are also focusing on market expansion through mobile devices.  According to a nationwide study conducted by them this year, they found that out of 2,600 employers and 5,000 workers, nearly 20% of the population search for jobs and research companies using mobile devices.

Recently, they launched an iPhone app for employers that grants employers access to job candidates anywhere directly from their mobile devices. The app lets employers sync directly to their existing CareerBuilder accounts and provides features such as ability to call, email, or send a letter to the applicant directly from their iPhone. They can also organize resumes, flip through applicants and receive notifications when new applications are available for review.

CareerBuilder’s International Expansion
The company claims to have more than 22 million unique visitors a month visiting CareerBuilder.com to access 1 million jobs posted by more than 300,000 employers. But, to continue their growth, they are focusing on international expansion. They recently acquired German online recruitment services provider, JobScout24. JobScout24 claims to have more than 3.36 million users accessing more than 250,000 jobs. CareerBuilder’s existing German site, CareerBuilder.de, was launched three years ago and is among the fastest-growing job sites in Germany. Through the acquisition, CareerBuilder will be able to establish a stronger footprint in the fifth-largest economy in the world. CareerBuilder currently operates in 20 countries and through partnerships and other acquisitions have presence in 55 countries worldwide.

Indeed’s Expansion
Indeed remains the leading job site in the world with more than 50 million unique visitors and 1 billion job searches recorded monthly. Their job board is available in more than 50 countries and 26 languages. Earlier last week, Indeed launched Indeed Resume, an open search engine for resumes. The tool, currently under beta testing, lets employers and recruiters access millions of qualified candidates on Indeed’s job site. Most job boards have access to resumes on a subscription-only basis. However, Indeed Resume is an open search engine and grants unrestricted access to these resumes for free during the beta period.

Simply Hired’s International Expansion

Simply Hired claims to have more than 8 million job listings on their website catering to 16 million monthly users spread across 24 countries. Like others, Simply Hired is also looking at international markets and recnetly launched a localized search engine in Portugal. SimplyHired.pt is targeted at the Portuguese recruiters and employers by offering them the ability to add jobs into search sites through a job feed. The site has been launched with a networking feature called, Who Do I Know?, which lets job seekers view their LinkedIn connections in-line with their search results.

The Indian e-recruitment market is estimated to have grown 36% a year from 2005 to 2009. The online job-seeking market reported growth of 31% annually to 30 million users by the end 2010. Further, the number of users is expected to grow to 100 million by 2020. India’s leading online recruiter, Naukri, is seeing growth in both usage and revenues.

Naukri’s Financials
Naukri’s parent company, Infoedge, saw Q1 revenues increase 31.5% over the year to Rs 866.59 million (~$17.9 million) with recruitment solutions reporting growth of 27.9% to Rs 700 million (~$14.48 million). EPS for the quarter grew 48.3% over the year to Rs 4.69 (~$0.10) with recruitment solutions reporting their highest-ever margin of 55%.

Naukri continued to add resumes to their database and reported an addition of 12,500 resumes and 70,000 modifications daily. They ended the quarter with 26 million resumes. The management pegs their market share to be 55%, well ahead of the global market leader, Monster’s, share in India. Monster is estimated to claim a market share in the mid-20% range.

Naukri’s Mobile Growth
Naukri is focusing on growth through mobile applications. Earlier, they launched a BlackBerry app and are now developing an Android-based app. Naukri is counting on the use of mobile apps during the day when most officegoers are unable to log on to their site because of office firewall policies and expect their mobile apps to help drive growth in the future.

The stock is trading at Rs 684.40 (~$14.16). It touched 52-week high of Rs 1,243 (~$25.71) in September of last year.