Hi Reader,
I just noticed some very interesting updates this week from the IAB forum (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung).
Allow me to share them with you here.
I know it's easy to source new jobs on internet job boards like Indeed, StepStone, LinkedIn, and the rest. You just make a filtered search and boom - results delivered for the location of choice.
But what might be surprising is that 13% more jobs are posted on company career pages rather than internet job boards. That's what was published on 8 June 2026 from 9,342 companies from all types industries. They were surveyed about their recruiting methods for last year, 2025.
What does this mean then?
Essentially, in 70% of jobs filled last year, the company advertised it on their own website. That makes sense, because it's cost free. That career page ad also directly resulted in 20% of overall hires.
The company might have also advertised it on Stepstone, but it was the direct website link which is where the successful hire found the job post.
When you compare that to internet job boards, only 57% of jobs were posted on an internet job board. But they did result in 21% of actual hires across all companies.
So the lesson is - make sure to get all the jobs from the company home pages. It's worth a double check from the job board after you get the ideas. Then once you get the ideas from the job board, just search the specific company website and confirm its availability on the careers page.
Whether you apply on the company's website or via the job board basically gives you the same chance of landing the job. Ghost jobs exist in both places!
The importance of personal contacts
No surprises, the separation for these companies comes in at the number 1 hiring method just like every year. Although only 48% of those jobs had a search via personal contacts, also known as referrals, 27% of the time it resulted in a successful hire.
So to summarize: Even when you search for roles, whether it's on a job board, company website, or social media...
Try your best to either get a contact inside of the company, or make a contact yourself.
You can do that by reaching out to the hiring manager behind the role you want. If you want me to do that with you every week like I do for my clients, then I would be thrilled to hear from you.
Kind regards,
Kevin