Twice as many skilled jobseekers start by looking online as did a year ago, according to new research from Reed. “The Quiet Revolution: Technology Transforming Recruitment” indicates that the rise in the use of the net has been greates among the most skilled candidates, doubling amongst AB jobseekers, from 18% a year ago to 37% today.

James Reed, founder of reed.co.uk and founder of recruitment group Reed Executive, commented: “New technology is transforming the world of recruitment, but in surprising ways. In spite of the apparent failure of the dot.com dream, our research indicates that it may begin to threaten the UK job advertising market, worth over a billion pounds to newspapers last year. While the best candidates increasingly look to the Internet first, online advertising costs continue to plummet to zero. At the same time I believe the future will be much more complex – and innovative – than a simple transition of the classified advertising model from offline to online.”