00:00How we search for jobs has transformed drastically over the last two decades.
00:06Platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor are among the key players in online recruitment.
00:12These companies have reshaped their industry, carving out an $11 billion market projected to
00:17grow to $41 billion by 2032. And in a survey of 1,000 job seekers, 40% of respondents credit
00:26job search engines to securing an interview, 35% say company websites are the way to go,
00:32and 34% say word of mouth networking is the best way to nail down an interview.
00:37But today, the industry is more than just listing a job or networking to find one.
00:42The rise of AI and evolving expectations from both employers and employees are driving hiring
00:48companies to new levels of innovation. But just how are these companies adapting with
00:53new competitors coming to the market? And how will AI play a role in our future job searches?
01:00Indeed is one of the key players in an increasingly competitive market.
01:04It's owned by Recruit Holdings, a Japanese employment agency with a market capitalization
01:09of $75 billion. That's larger than some of Japan's biggest-named companies like Honda Motor
01:16and Nintendo. Indeed fluxes as the number one job site in the world, with over 350 million unique
01:23visitors every month in 2023. And it intends to stay that way. Leading the effort is Chris Hyams,
01:30CEO of Indeed, who joined the company in 2010 as vice president of product.
01:35Hyams credits the company's job-first approach for building trust in its 20-year history.
01:41We exist only to help people get jobs. And I believe the most important factor in influencing
01:48how a company makes decisions about their products and their services is how they make money.
01:51That's because Indeed gives employers the option to sponsor a job listing,
01:55with prices starting at $5 a day or $150 a month.
02:00We only make money when we are helping an employer and a job seeker connect, which means that
02:05all of the data that we collect from job seekers is used only to help them better match for the
02:12best opportunities possible. They're going to find the opportunities they're looking for and
02:15they won't be finding themselves reached out for irrelevant things or targeted for advertising.
02:21That's not why they came to the site in the first place. Indeed shares a hiring space with other
02:25sites like LinkedIn, which offers not only a constantly updating job board, but also a space
02:31to network with other career-focused professionals. But Hyams says this comes with a cost.
02:36If you look at other businesses like LinkedIn, an amazing company, we have a huge amount of
02:41respect for them, a portion of the revenue comes from employment. They also make a huge amount of
02:45money from advertising and from sales and other things. And so as a person who comes on to the
02:53site, are you being targeted just for employment opportunities or for a whole host of other things?
03:00But adding social media into the mix of hiring has been massively successful for LinkedIn.
03:05In the 2024 fiscal year, LinkedIn reported revenues exceeding $16.37 billion,
03:12up from almost $15 billion in the previous year. The platform boasts over a billion members in 200
03:18countries and regions, and has also ranked 116th on America's most innovative companies by fortune.
03:25LinkedIn's revenue streams include a significant contribution from advertising, which generated
03:30$5.9 billion in 2022. Meanwhile, its premium membership surpassed $1.7 billion as of March
03:392024. Glassdoor, also acquired by Recruit Holdings, has built a reputation for services
03:45that encourage transparency in the job market. Christian Sutherland Wong, CEO of the job site,
03:51emphasizes that Glassdoor's platform allows people to hold employers accountable,
03:56particularly around pay transparency, a critical issue in today's labor market.
04:01At the end of the day, it's transparency that's going to be the ultimate solve
04:05for a lot of pay inequity that we see in the U.S. and around the world.
04:09The platform's option to be anonymous has made it a popular outlet for employees to be honest
04:14about their employers. And the anonymity has built trust and helped prospective employees
04:19understand what really goes on behind the scenes at companies. As of 2024,
04:24Glassdoor reports over 63 million unique monthly visitors and hosts more than 212 million reviews,
04:31salary details, and workplace insights.
04:34The value of Glassdoor's platform is that we have trust with the people who use it. And so we put
04:39in a ton of processes and a ton of investment in making sure that people can trust the platform.
04:44Without that trust, we can't exist. So we take it really, really seriously.
04:48Despite their progress, these companies, like many others in various industries,
04:52have also faced layoffs. In 2024, LinkedIn reportedly laid off about 200 employees from
04:58its engineering and customer support teams. In May, Indeed laid off around 1,000 employees,
05:04representing about 8% of its workforce. Artificial intelligence has also become
05:09a focal point for job sites looking to utilize technology to improve efficiency.
05:14Recruit Holding is investing heavily in AI. The company's leaders tout this as a new era
05:19in hiring that will provide users with a personal talent agent powered by generative AI.
05:25I see what AI can do is effectively take this kind of very white glove experience
05:29and make it available for the masses. An agent could be on your side to take you through your
05:34job seeking journey and make it a much smoother and more powerful experience for you as a job seeker.
05:39For Indeed, this approach to AI is also at the core of their strategy.
05:43If you think about how a talent agent works for athletes and for musicians,
05:48that is someone who understands everything about you, about the market,
05:52and who works tirelessly on your behalf. This is one of the things that generative AI can
05:56actually bring. We have the first versions of this that we are going to be releasing in the
06:00coming months. And we see a real future where every single person will have a champion just
06:06for them that is helping and working tirelessly to connect them to the best opportunities.
06:12As the hiring landscape evolves, platforms like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor aim to connect
06:18people with opportunities in smarter and more efficient ways. AI is set to play a pivotal role
06:24transforming job seeking, promising agent-like chatbots to improve the experience for users.
06:30But the question remains, will AI be a force that better connects humans to jobs,
06:36or will it diminish the number of humans needed in the workforce?
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