Seek: 'Browsers' no replacement for serious jobseekers

Yesterday Trade Me jobs claimed another victory over Seek in the ongoing battle over who attracts the most job hunters in New Zealand. 

Head of Trade Me Jobs, Peter Ashby, explained, “Attracting more Kiwis than any other job site has been a milestone in our sights since Trade Me Jobs officially passed Seek on domestic page impressions back in July 2009.”

We contacted Seek for its side of the story and was told that because Seek’s audience is more engaged, advertisers get the best value.

Seek Senior Executive Helen Souness, explained, “A press release issued by Trade Me Jobs claims it has taken the number 1 spot based on a domestic unique browser (UB) lead of 0.4%* for the month of October. Yet Seek leads total UBs by 10.1% and dismisses this as the sole metric of leadership.”

Souness says that serious jobseekers turn to Seek and that looking at unique browsers in isolation does not equate to leadership.

“We pride ourselves on matching expectations with results – independent research shows that 79% of jobseekers found out about their last job on Seek,” Souness continued. “Trade Me Jobs have described their audience as ‘a more passive job seeker market’, most likely due to their browsers coming from other areas of the site, such as their fun auctions. Whereas in Seek’s case, our audience are more engaged, they head to Seek because that’s all we do – jobs.”