A report today by
Classified Intelligence Report's
John Zappe might put a scare into anyone making money off employment listings (from job boards like
Monster.com to newspaper/website classifieds employment sections). He points out that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today
approved a petition by human-resources managers to create a new Internet top-level domain -- .jobs -- for the sole purpose of posting corporate jobs.
The domain extension ultimately will make it easier for job-seekers to find job openings that corporations post on their own sites. And you know what that means: less need for independent online job boards (not to mention newspaper employment classifieds).
Says Zappe: "What makes this new naming much more than a geek curiosity is its profound potential to diminish the need for commercial job postings. For the time being, the fortunes of Monster and its competitors, including CareerBuilder and HotJobs, are unlikely to be affected. In the long run, the new extension could mean job postings are listed only on the corporate site, as companies rely on brand advertising and the rise of so-called metasearch engines to drive applicant traffic."
The impact of this could be similar to the impact of
Craigslist on newspaper classifieds, especially in the merchandise categories. Craig's immensely popular network of free local classifieds sites has badly hurt some newspapers, and sent the signal that paid classifieds may be on their way out, permanently.
This .jobs news perhaps signals the same thing for the employment classifieds and paid-listings sector. Network improvements such as this could obliterate many millions of dollars of revenue in the employment-listings sector in the years ahead, just as Craig already has done for mechandise classifieds.
Most corporations of any size already post their own jobs...
