Facebook Tops For Job Seekers [Infographic]

More Job Seekers Use Facebook to Find Work than LinkedIn, Twitter

LinkedIn may the choice for professionals and Twitter may be gaining popularity, but Facebook is still the king of social media for job seekers, a new study shows.

In 2012, 88 percent of job seekers have at least one social media profile, according to a recent survey by the recruiting platform Jobvite. Facebook was the number one platform people used to find work this year, outperforming the exclusively professional network, LinkedIn.

From Sept. 5 through 7, Jobvite surveyed 2,108 adults, of which 1,266 are currently employed. They were asked how they felt about their employment prospects in the current economy.

Unsurprisingly, social media played an important role in establishing a professional identity and searching for new jobs, even among the gainfully employed.

However, while LinkedIn and Twitter both had substantial gains in professional use this year, Facebook still remains on top, as it has for the last three years.

The numbers say it all:

Job Hunters on Facebook:

52 percent use Facebook to help find work in 2012, up from 48 percent in 2011
14 percent looked for jobs on Facebook
15 percent changed their privacy settings with work in mind
17 percent mentioned their profiles on a job application or during an interview
63 percent are under the age of 40, 70 percent are male
36 percent are college graduates, 40 percent earn more than $75,000
1 in 5 had a friend share a job on Facebook, unchanged from 2011

Job Hunters on LinkedIn:

38 percent use LinkedIn to help find work in 2012, compared to 30 percent in 2011
19 percent had a contact share a job on LinkedIn, up from 8 percent in 2011
11 percent used LinkedIn to search for jobs
7 percent changed their privacy settings with work in mind
9 percent mentioned their profiles on a job application or during an interview
62 percent are under the age of 40, 60 percent are male
50 percent are college graduates, 51 percent earn more than $75,000

More details are in the infographic below.