An examination of the 47,814 unique Malta-based visitors to Konnekt.com from January 1 to October 31, and of the 4,782 active people on our database during this period has yielded some interesting insights.

In terms of candidates, men are more active on the job market than women. In terms of age group, 56 per cent of all active users in our database are aged between 18 and 35. The second largest segment, 21 per cent of all active users, is aged between 36 and 50. We believe that the 36-50 age group is actually larger – on examining the CVs of a sample of the 750-odd users who did not divulge their age, we confirmed that a majority would fall within this age bracket.

Looking at the most popular months during which jobseekers look for jobs, July to October represent 60 per cent of all traffic. July and October are over 40 per cent more popular than the annual average.

An overwhelming majority of people search for jobs during weekdays. Interest peaks on Mondays and dwindles away as the week progresses, with Friday the least popular weekday to look for jobs. Weekends attract fewer than half the visitors of an average weekday. If you are looking for talent on Saturdays, do not be surprised if you do not find any – this is the least popular day with online job seekers.

The most surprising observation is that 68 per cent of visitors search for jobs between 8am and 5pm. And peak time is not break time either – 11am is consistently the most popular time of the day jobseekers set about searching.

Examining traffic sources sheds light on where the online job seeker looks for career opportunities: 49 per cent of visits are referred to Konnekt.com by other websites. Local job boards are very strong, with Jobigloo.com and Timesofmalta.com referring the lion’s share of users.

The popularity of local job boards is very much in line with trends in the UK. Social media accounts for 22 per cent of all referrals, with Linkedin and Facebook the most popular. Employers should make an effort to optimise their jobs for Google search.

This is an important aspect of any employers’ talent acquisition strategy, as Google refers more than 90 per cent of all search engine traffic; 23 per cent of users come to Konnekt.com directly.

With Konnekt.com the most popular recruitment agency website according to recruitmentagenciesinmalta.com, it is safe to assume that jobseekers see recruitment agencies as one of their main sources for jobs. E-mail accounts for five per cent of referrals and this would include referrals from friends and other miscellaneous mailings.

Online job seekers zap through sites: 75 per cent of all users visit for fewer than three minutes. The average user would visit four pages; 32 per cent only visit the page they land in, which in most cases would be the job advert.

Mobile devices account for eight per cent of all visits. Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser with Maltese jobseekers.

Given the breakneck pace at which the online recruitment space is developing and the resulting impact on job seeker behaviour, expect some interesting changes next year.

Josef Said is managing director of Konnekt.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.