Hidden trends revealed by AIM Group’s analysis of the 17 publicly listed job boards

On the second Thursday of each month, I host an online get together of dozens of leaders of the world’s best job boards and other recruitment marketplaces. We record and then publish each episode so that those who can’t join in real-time can still benefit from the information that we freely share with each other.

Today’s episode featured my long-time friend (and sometimes work associate) Bill Boorman. He’s been an executive recruiter, advices some of the most innovative HR tech companies in the world, organizer of conferences, and now a prolific writer for the AIM Group’s Recruitment Intelligence Report. What makes me say prolific? He writes about 60 pieces a month, with four of them being very in-depth. I was one of the first subscribers, and find the articles to be invaluable. Oh, and this is not a paid product placement. It’s just coming from a happy and long-time customer.

Peter M. Zollman, the founding principal of the AIM Group, and I also cohost the Inside Job Boards and Recruitment Marketplaces Podcast. Bill has been one of our 100+ guests, and never fails to deliver an incredible wealth of information in clear, unambiguous language. Depending on the conversation, you may agree or disagree with him, like or dislike what he has to say, but you’ll likely always admire him for not being afraid to share his opinions, and also not being afraid to admit when he was wrong.

Bill recently undertook an analysis of the 17 companies globally who are publicly traded and either are a job board or recruitment marketplace, or own one. What he found by looking at all 17 collectively would not have been evident by looking at any of them individually, nor looking at a bunch of (mostly) smaller organizations that are not publicly traded. In short, these organizations are rapidly moving away from selling products such as postings and CV/resume searching and to outcomes such as hires. They’re receiving a wealth of disposition data from their employer clients, such as which clicks are converting into applications, which applications are converting into interviews, which interviews are converting into offers, which offers are converting into hires, and more.

We asked Bill whether (mostly) smaller job boards like College Recruiter job search site compete? In short, yes. We have something that the biggest players don’t: deep knowledge of our niche. That’s our moat. We understand and, hopefully, have earned the trust of the employers and candidates we bring together.

The next Roundtable will be Thursday, November 12th at our usual time: 11:00am U.S. Eastern. Our guest will be long-time industry veteran, Jonathan Duarte of GoHire. He will discuss whether AI agents will replace job boards, whether job boards will morph into agentic AI solutions, or something else. Want an invite? Email me at Steven@CollegeRecruiter.com.

AI-generated notes from today’s meeting:

• Overview of the Global Job Board Market and Earnings Reports: Steven Rothberg opened the roundtable and introduced Bill Boorman, discussing industry terminology such as “recruitment marketplace” used by the AIM Group versus “job board” (00:00:04). Bill Boorman explained that they track public earnings calls from 17 globally listed job boards, which represent approximately 30 billion dollars of an estimated 60 billion dollar total job ad market. They noted that earnings calls provide transparent financials, EBITDA margins, and global pattern comparisons across different regional markets (00:02:15).
• Shift from Static Categories to Dynamic Workflows: Bill Boorman argued that traditional, fixed categories like job boards, recruitment marketplaces, and applicant tracking systems are outdated and that the industry now operates on workflows (00:05:15). They explained that job discovery has moved earlier in the process through open text search before specific job matching, while the hiring workflow now extends deeper into the hiring funnel to conclude at the first interview or screen rather than just the application level (00:07:39). Across all listed businesses, the observed trend is fewer ads with more customers paying higher prices (00:09:44).

• LinkedIn Revenue Breakdown and Listed Company Composition: Steven Rothberg and Bill Boorman discussed the composition of the 17 listed recruitment marketplaces, which consist of 13 job boards and 4 freelance businesses (00:10:40). Bill Boorman highlighted that a recent earnings and conference disclosure revealed approximately 40 percent of LinkedIn revenue comes from talent and talent products, while the remaining 60 percent comes from marketing and sales (00:12:18) (00:28:50).
• Campaign-Based Buying and End-to-End Hiring: Bill Boorman explained that employers are increasingly purchasing campaigns—defined as end-to-end hiring workflows within a single destination—rather than traditional job ads distributed across multiple platforms (00:13:14). They noted that only about 20 percent of hiring occurs from linear replies to job ads, while 80 percent is driven by recommenders and dynamic, automated outbound artificial intelligence sourcing (00:14:18).
• Shift from Inputs to Outcomes in Sales Pitches: Bill Boorman detailed how recruitment platforms launched hearts-and-minds campaigns to shift buyer focus from inputs (like clicks and volume) to outcomes (such as speed, qualified short lists, and reducing empty chair time) (00:15:30). They noted that sales narratives focus heavily on high-shortage sectors like truck drivers and nurses rather than specialized roles like developers or chief financial officers, with the broader goal of capturing a slice of the 360 billion dollar technology and staffing market rather than just the 60 billion dollar job ad market (00:16:24).
• Commercial Realization of Artificial Intelligence and Applicant Tracking System Integration: Bill Boorman discussed how companies like Indeed and LinkedIn have turned artificial intelligence into profit by bundling agencies into sellable propositions focused on hiring outcomes. They noted that medium-sized groups and regional players—such as Career in Turkey—own domestic applicant tracking system data, while platforms like Indeed use Indeed Apply to capture disposition data and tie click values to post-apply events (00:19:06).
• Regional Variations in Candidate-Paid Revenue Models: Steven Rothberg and Bill Boorman addressed international revenue models, with Bill Boorman noting that candidate-facing revenue accounts for up to 30 percent of earnings for certain properties in the Far East and India, whereas North America and Europe rely primarily on traditional client-pay models (00:23:37). They explained that when candidates pay in certain regions, they are purchasing enhancement services like resume writing, interview practice, and career coaching rather than basic job search access, with LinkedIn serving as an outlier through premium memberships (00:25:21) (00:27:48).
• Targeting Small and Medium Enterprises and Enterprise Pilots: Bill Boorman explained that major recruitment platforms targeted small and medium enterprises with artificial intelligence solutions to prove business cases without undergoing lengthy enterprise compliance reviews (00:31:40). They stated that enterprise sales teams are currently securing two-to-three-year pilot deals targeting chief executive officers, chief financial officers, and chief technology officers (00:32:27) (00:35:15). Furthermore, global rollouts are localized country by country and state by state due to regional regulations like the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act and differing cultural workflows (00:33:59).
• Pricing Clicks Based on Labor Market Insights and Frontline Scarcity: Bill Boorman explained that major job boards employ economists to generate labor market insights that dynamically price clicks based on role complexity, market availability, and sector competition (00:38:38). They emphasized that critical frontline roles—such as server and truck driver positions where vacancies directly impact business revenue—command higher click values and allow platforms to push margins, supported by social media distribution and large language model-driven candidate conversion rates (00:41:49).
• Industry Surprises Regarding Technology Speed and Beta Products: Bill Boorman expressed surprise at the rapid speed at which major platforms developed new technological products and noted that the market has willingly accepted beta products at premium prices while providing data to train artificial intelligence models (00:46:16). They also observed the industry transition from traditional keyword search to contextual search workflows (00:48:16).
• Proving Success Through Applicant Tracking System Integration: Jonathan Duarte asked whether platforms provide data back to clients to prove success rather than relying on mass job broadcasting. Bill Boorman confirmed that platforms accomplish this by integrating applicant tracking systems—such as Indeed Apply connecting over 450 applicant tracking systems, along with similar models from Stepstone and Seek—to link click data directly to final disposition outcomes (00:50:11).
• Strategic Guidance for Small Job Boards and Niche Competitors: Adarsh JobCrexa asked for guidance on scaling a newly founded job aggregation platform in India (00:52:21). Responding to Steven Rothberg’s inquiry about how smaller job boards can compete with industry giants, Bill Boorman advised smaller competitors to focus on proprietary data within narrow geographic or sectoral niches, build specialized small language models trained on years of historical transaction and outcome data, and utilize middleware providers to integrate with applicant tracking systems rather than attempting to compete as generalists (00:54:21).
• Business Strategy and Contact Information: Bill Boorman advises that building partnerships is a key strategy for successfully selling a business, with an alternative being to value the business on existing data and sell immediately (00:58:37). For individuals wishing to make contact, Bill Boorman recommends messaging them on LinkedIn, where they post daily, or via Facebook, while noting that email inquiries might experience a response delay of a few days .
• Industry Publications and Participant Recognition: Steven Rothberg highlights the AIM Group for publishing recruitment intelligence reports that cover various verticals, and acknowledges being a subscriber to their newsletter, to which Bill Boorman is a frequent contributor . Steven Rothberg thanks Bill Boorman for sharing their wisdom during the session, to which Bill Boorman expresses appreciation .
• Follow-Up Questions and Upcoming Meeting Schedule: Bill Boorman offers to address any additional questions that were not answered during the session if they are sent to them, promising to return the answers for distribution . Steven Rothberg announces that the next episode will take place on November 12th, following the recurring schedule of the second Thursday of every month, before Steven Rothberg, Bill Boorman, and Jonathan Duarte conclude the meeting .