Will Passive Job Seekers Apply to Your Job? from CareerBuilder reads as an infomercial, but there are some usable data points in the first few paragraphs. Active vs. passive candidates is a subject that merits more discussion. The changing landscape of the 21st century is moving all candidates towards the active status. Job search agents, online boards, networking groups – all tools that make it simple for the most passive of candidates to be categorized as “active” in some vain.
You might say that active categorizes someone who wants to make a change. True, but I’ve read articles that state 67% of today’s employees keep an eye on other employment opportunities during the year. The landscape is definitely changing in the information age.
Back to the original article and those two pieces of interesting data:
- 23% of job seekers say they are unlikely to continue applying to a job online if they have to register on the site (CareerBuilder.com never makes job seekers register in order to apply for a job).
- 29% of job seekers say they are unlikely to continue the application process if it requires them to go to another site to complete the application.
Maybe the modern-day “passive” candidate falls within this 23 – 29% group?