Facebook’s looking to take a punt on job listings once again, with an updated version of job opportunities in the app, which it says is aimed at helping young adults to find local entry-level roles.
As you can see in this example, Facebook’s bringing back on-platform job listings, which will be available via the “Marketplace” tab, in order to help connect more people with open opportunities.
As explained by Facebook:
“Finding a job should be easy and accessible. Whether you’re looking for your first real job or a part-time gig, Facebook’s new job tool helps you find and apply for the kind of work you want. You can easily search for new jobs via our dedicated tab in Marketplace. Job listings will also appear across Groups and Pages, and you can filter and sort jobs on the Marketplace Jobs subtab by category, distance, and job type.”
So there’ll be a couple of ways to find these new job listings, providing another means to display your open roles in the most used (by user count at least) social platform in the world.
Individuals or businesses will be able to list open roles via their personal profile (e.g. a landscaper for your home), or from their Facebook company Page.
“If you’re an employer, you can create a job listing on Facebook through Marketplace, your Page, or the Meta Business Suite.”
And again, given the usage of Facebook, it makes sense, though it will be interesting to see whether job listings fare better this time around, or whether Meta decides to move on from them once again.
Facebook first announced in-stream job listings back in 2016, and eventually expanded them to most regions. It also added on-profile resumes and other job features, in what seemed like a potential challenge to LinkedIn.
But by 2022, Facebook had all but retired its job display and promotion option, scaling back its job listings to the point where they were no longer searchable or promotable in the same way.
Why?
Well, for one, Facebook’s job listings weren’t driving significant interest from users, as Facebook wasn’t ever really seen as a viable connector for such opportunities. But more importantly, studies had found that Facebook’s algorithms were displaying different job ads to women and men, despite such roles requiring the same qualifications, among various discriminatory practices.
Given the lack of audience interest, and regulatory concerns, Facebook opted to step away from job listings entirely. But now, for some reason, it’s decided to wade back into the recruitment waters, in the hopes that its AI-powered algorithms will do better at matching the right roles to the right users.
And maybe they will. I mean, Facebook does have a lot of data on your interests, and should be able to match those up with potential opportunities.
Indeed, back in 2016, before the introduction of the first iteration of job listings in the app, Facebook’s research team published two studies which showed how Facebook data could help you find your ideal career path.
So Meta does have the data required to help match people to opportunities, and it should be able to parse this information via its evolving AI systems.
Maybe that’s enough of a carrot for Facebook to try job listings out again, as a means to provide a more direct connective opportunity for SMBs and local businesses.
It also seems aligned with Meta’s push to become the local bulletin board, replacing local newspapers with Facebook groups. The decline in print media, caused in part by Facebook, has seen many local publications forced to shutter, with local groups taking their place. The rise of Marketplace is another example of this, and jobs could be another element of Facebook’s push to become the community hub in this respect.
So it could be something, but I doubt that Facebook jobs will be taking a significant chunk out of the broader recruitment market.
