Recruiters Shun Newspapers

 Jen: Borrell Associates has a new report out focusing on recruitment advertising and a "jobless" recovery. As Fitz reported earlier, the NAA posted its Q3 industry ad revenue numbers and newspapers have been taking it in the chin in the category of classified help-wanted (among all categories actually). Classified ad revenue plunged 64.6% in Q3 year-over-year to $175 million.

Borrell reports that online zoomed past newspapers in recruitment spending -- five years ago. Online recruitment spending "is headed toward spending levels that newspapers enjoyed back in the 1990s." 

Borrell charts the stomach churning ups and downs -- and mostly downs -- of recruitment spending in newspapers. It peaked in 2001 at $9 billion, falling naturally, after the dot com bust. Spending climbed 15.6% to $5.9 billion in 2005 compared to 2004 before hitting the skids. This year, Borrell expects newspaper recruitment spending to come in at $1.8 billion, while online it's expected to rise to $5.3 billion.

By 2014 Borrell anticipates that recruitment spending online will reach $7.6 billion while in newspapers it will stall at $1.7 billion.