Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

Harris Interactive recently released a study hoping to explain the intricacies of how Americans use Internet search.

The article said, "Surprisingly few people researching specific topics are looking for job or career information (28%)."

Few people?

It’s all relative, I suppose. Personally, I think 1-in-4 people is pretty respectable, particularly considering that major search engines today are pretty poor at helping people search actual job listings. Most searches leave users drowning in a flood of Bush League job boards.

That’s changing. With Yahoo! getting into the vertical job search game, and Google not far behind (so I think), I believe that 28 percent number will go up considerably (although, again, I don’t think it’s anything to sneeze at today).

Additionally, the article fails to report how many of those surveyed were already employed. If that 28 percent are all passive job seekers, than that makes the number very appealing.

Moreover, anyone who has participated in surveys before knows that results tend to be skewed toward how people think they should answer, and not the real deal. Admitting to looking for work is typically not something one likes to do, and this survey may be a reflection of that.

In short, what seems low in comparison to searching for news or shopping to some, seems quite promising to me. And as the major search engines get better at delivering quality content to users, that number should go up significantly.

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