Some interesting statistics are in from a couple of trusted Internet sources, WEDDLE’s (www.weddles.com) and Salary.com, on the topic of how people find jobs.

WEDDLE’s 2008 Source of Employment Survey ran from March 2007 to March 2008 and generated responses from over 15,600 individuals. The respondents were 65% male, 35% female; they had a median age of 40-45, with more than 60% describing themselves as managers, mid-level professionals, or executives.

When asked to identify where they found their last job, the respondents listed the following sources as their top ten (not all sources are listed so the percentages will not total to 100%):

· 13.3% An ad posted on an Internet job board

· 7.0% A tip from a friend

· 6.8% Other

· 6.3% A newspaper ad

· 6.2% They posted their resume on a job board

· 6.0% A call from a headhunter

· 5.8% They were referred by an employee of the company

· 5.2% They sent a resume to the company

· 4.9% At a career fair

· 4.8% By networking at work.

Survey Source: Weddles.com

Salary.com released its recent Employee Job Satisfaction & Retention Survey, where a total of 7,482 individuals and 245 human resource or other company representatives responded. Among the individual employee respondents, 7,101 were employed and provided valid responses. Of those, 57 percent of employees indicated they are “somewhat” or “very” likely to intensify their job search in the next three months, down slightly from last year’s 62 percent. The most popular job search activities that employees are involved in, in order of preference:

· 46% are surfing online job postings

· 42% are updating their resume

· 32% are reading classified employment listings

· 32% are networking with friends/colleagues

· 27% are posting or emailing resumes

Survey Source: Salary.com

If you combine WEDDLE’s “tip from a friend” and “referral by an employee of the company” you get nearly the same number as the #1 response “an ad posted on an Internet job board,” which implies that networking should receive the same amount of attention as surfing online job postings. The questions that arise are these: Are you spending an equal amount of time networking? And, if not, how can you make that happen?

Source: Career Coach Academy