HelloWork, ZipRecruiter, and a survey: news of the job board world

There is news this time around for optimists (see HelloWork) and pessimists (see ZipRecruiter), but mainly, there is a little bit of everything: acquisitions, funding, legislation, and product launches. Unlike last month, at least there are no new layoffs (I think)! Let’s take a look:

• HelloWork plans more acquisitions: France-based HelloWork Group managing director David Beaurepaire says that HelloWork was planning to invest €50 million ($55 million U.S.) between 2023 to 2026 to acquire HRTech and EdTech companies to consolidate its position in its domestic market and expand in Europe. Beaurepaire also claimed that the company’s success was mainly due to the rebranding of its network of sites as HelloWork in 2022, which helped to solve technical and marketing issues. Branding works once again!
• New EU rules affect job postings: New legislation will require EU companies to disclose information that makes it easier for employees to compare salaries and to expose existing gender pay gaps. Workers will have the right to information on pay in their category of work, and companies will have to act if their gender pay gap is over 5%. On pay-related issues, the burden of proof will shift from the worker to the employer. Looks like they’re moving from the carrot to the stick!
• LinkedIn revenue is up: LinkedIn revenue rose 10% in constant currency to more than $3.70 billion; the increase was 8% on a reported basis. The number of student sign-ups on LinkedIn rose 73% year over year. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood forecast LinkedIn revenue will increase in the mid-single digits. Congrats!
• DIP Corp. revenue is up: Japan-based recruitment group DIP Corp. posted 16.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in revenue for the fourth quarter of the financial year to February, to JPY12.6 billion ($95.3 million U.S.). The company attributed the advance to a surge in sales from personal recruiting services. The company operates flagship recruitment marketplaces Baitoru (for part-timers), BaitoruNext (for those looking for regular and contract positions), Hatarako (for temporary jobs) and BaitoruPro (for healthcare roles). Impressive.
• Upwork revenue is up: Upwork reported first-quarter revenue rose 13.8% year over year to $160.9 million, but that is slower than the 18.0% year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter and 23.8% in the third quarter. Gross services volume — the total amount clients spend on marketplace offerings and managed service offerings as well as additional fees — was flat year over year in the first quarter at approximately $1.0 billion. Hmm.
• DHI revenue is up:  DHI Group’s first-quarter revenue rose 12.5% year over year to $38.6 million. Revenue rose in both its Dice and ClearanceJobs segments, up 9.2% and 20.7%, respectively. DHI forecast second-quarter revenue will be up between 4% and 5% year over year. Revenue for the full year is expected to be up 5% to 6%. Not bad.
• ZipRecruiter revenue is down: ZipRecruiter posted an expected steep decline in revenue for the last quarter, but the company said its expectations for the coming quarter and coming year are significantly worse than they were at the start of 2023. The U.S. no. 2 jobs site (after Recruit Holding’s shared-listing sites Indeed and Glassdoor) reported revenue of $184 million for Q1 2023, down 19% year-on-year. Ouch.
• Seek job ads down: Job ads in Australia have fallen by 19.1% year-over-year in April 2023, according to job board operator Seek. On a monthly basis, job ads also fell by 1.4%. By industry, the biggest annual decrease was observed in the Hospitality and Tourism industry (-48.1%). The latest data also shows that applications per job ad increased over the month by 7.7% in April. Hmm.
• iHire releases candidate survey data: iHire published a new research report uncovering job seekers’ preferences when searching for work. The What Candidates Want: 2023 Job Seeker Report details the results of iHire’s survey of a Qualtrics panel comprising 600 working professionals in all industries across the United States. To download the full report, visit: https://go.ihire.com/ct59n. Among the results: Candidates want to know salary ranges – and a lack of pay transparency can be a dealbreaker; and candidates want some form of in-person work, but remote work options remain essential. Worth a read.
• Recruitics launches Fusion: Recruitics has released Fusion, an end-to-end talent conversion, engagement, and screening platform. Pre-application Fusion provides a branded, ATS-integrated career destination that engages and converts job seekers. Post-application Fusion provides an AI enabled screening service that helps companies increase hiring efficiency by leveraging advanced engagement automation technology and a human touch. Interesting.
• PandoLogic launches new diversity tool:  PandoLogic launched pandoDIVERSITY, which is designed to help customers attract and recruit underrepresented job candidates. The tool provides access to a  network of publishers specializing in diverse and underrepresented candidates such as women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. Additionally, the use of AI-based programmatic recruitment technology helps to automate and optimize hiring campaigns, remove bias in the recruitment funnel and enhance data transparency. Intriguing.
• Jopwell is acquired: True, a global platform of talent management products and services based in Haddonfield, New Jersey, acquired Jopwell, a New York-based hiring platform for diversity students and early-to-mid-career professionals. With the acquisition, Jopwell CEO Ryan Williams and executive chairman Porter Braswell will continue to lead the company as a business unit within True Platform. Congrats!
• JobbNorge is acquired:  Viking Venture-owned Grade has bought Norway-based recruitment company JobbNorge, whose job board currently hosts 2,400 listings. But JobbNorge is in fact more than a job board, since those ads come from companies using the recruitment tools that JobbNorge developed. Besides developing recruitment tools, JobbNorge also runs a media bureau business. Viking Ventures, a venture capital investor based in Trondheim, Norway, invested in Grade and WorkBuster in 2021 in order to become a leading player in the HR software space. Very interesting.
• Gigs gets funding: Gigs announced its official launch, alongside the raising of $2.7 million in pre-seed funding, which it will invest in product, engineering, marketing and sales. The platform connects companies with job-seekers looking for local hourly, part-time or full-time roles in the retail, food and beverage, logistics and hospitality sectors. Companies can source local candidates that meet specific qualification criteria and showcase their brand on the site through photos and video. Sounds familiar.

Well, we’ll see if (when?) things turn around for ZipRecruiter in the next few months – and be sure to let me know if HelloWork buys you! Until next time…

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