Newspapers are still the most popular method of advertising jobs despite the sharp downturn in press advertising in the last 12 months. According to the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI), press advertising was even prevalent in the search for IT specialists.
Professor Shaun Tyson of Cranfield School of Management, which produces the index in conjunction with the Daily Telegraph, said: "This may reflect the less senior vacancies being advertised now in the IT field. I would still anticipate IT jobs to be advertised on the web, but there may be fewer of them at present."
Overall in the last six months, 19 per cent of bosses used regional newspapers to find IT staff. Professional magazines, national newspapers and commercial web sites were used by around seven per cent of employers.
The news will provide a crumb of comfort for press bosses who have witnessed a massive slump in advertising revenues since January 2001. According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation/Andersen Report on Jobs press advertising for job vacancies halved last year with the fall only bottoming out in recent months.
Other findings from the index showed that speculative applications and, surprisingly, own web sites were the least successful recruitment method when it came to attracting suitable candidates to computing and IT departments.
Head of Recruitment at the Daily Telegraph Nick Hill said: "Just as companies are holding back on replacing their hardware and software, it's the same with recruitment. Businesses won't do it until the need is urgent."
The Index also revealed that formal references are still highly valued in the selection process by companies. Online psychometric testing and assessment centres are still relatively unused with just one in ten companies using them.