- 70% of job seekers have never applied for a job using their mobile.
- 100% of job seekers save adverts on their mobile to look at later.
- 100% of job seekers use multiple devices when searching, researching and applying for jobs.
Job seekers don’t trust their mobiles when applying for jobs, new research from Madgex has revealed.
Two thirds of job seekers in the study have never applied for a job via their mobile, citing a lack of confidence in the device to do the job well. Reasons include the size of the screen, no ‘proper’ keyboard and difficulties cross-referencing the advert, when preparing a covering letter and CV.
However, while job seekers may not be applying via their mobile, they are using their smart phones for much longer periods than previously thought.
Nearly half of the participants in the Job Seeker Behaviour study use their mobile for up to 40 minutes per job seeking session. So if they’re not applying, what are they using their phone for?
According to the report, 100% of job seekers use their mobiles to search for potential job leads, then save the advert to look at later on their desktop. Job seeking has become a multi-device activity, which means job boards need to help users move seamlessly from one device to another.
Madgex used a diary study and combination of analytics to understand how people engage with job boards. The first part of the research – A Day in the Life of a Job Seeker – focused on when people search for jobs. This follow up study looks at how job seekers use a range of devices, and what this means for mobile applications.
Tracy Godding, head of UX research at Madgex, carried out the study: “The increasing use of multiple devices to apply for jobs has fragmented the application process. Job boards need to adapt to that change.
“The application experience needs to be seamless for those that want to defer application for later on a different device, as well as those that are happy to apply on their mobile.
“We also need to help bridge the gap between a jobseeker’s willingness to apply and their lack of trust in applying on mobile.”
To find out more about the results of this study, download Madgex’s free whitepaper ‘Job Seeker Behaviour: Multi-Device Applications’.
