The duel on the labor market platform promises to be exciting. Two major providers are competing for the clicks of job seekers and the advertisements of companies: karriere.at and Stepstone. We analyze where each of them can score points and what alternatives there are on the market for online vacancies.
It is a David versus Goliath battle, with the smaller David leading the way in the job platform market in Austria.
The giant Goliath worldwide is the company Stepstone, a subsidiary of the German Axel Springer Group, with activities in Europe, America and even Africa. Stepstone generates more than a billion euros in turnover annually. “We are a high-tech human resources group and have more than 1,000 software developers internationally,” says Nikolai Dürhammer, CEO of Stepstone Austria.
The market leader in Austria is karriere.at GmbH, based in Linz
In Austria, however, karriere.at GmbH, based in Linz, is number one. The company focused early on online job postings. On Thursday evening, karriere.at offered more than 20,000 job postings in the app and on the website. In comparison, Stepstone had almost 10,000 job postings on its list. karriere.at boss Georg Konjovic: “We have been around for almost 20 years and are the clear market leader in Austria.”
Classic applications are being phased out
In January, karriere.at also fully acquired the smaller job platform hokify, in which it was already involved. Konjovic: “hokify has a clear focus on the app and on making it easier to find work. This is no longer done via a classic application with a CV, but you have a job profile.” In this way, hokify appeals more to the younger target group.
Both karriere.at and Stepstone operate other platforms. The website jobs.at also belongs to karriere.at. Konjovic: “It specializes in vacancies for workers.” Stepstone’s portfolio also includes the sites hotelcareer.at and gastrojobs.at for vacancies in the hotel and hospitality industry. Stepstone also offers the website unijobs.at for temporary, part-time and student jobs.
Applicants pay nothing, companies do
All websites are free to use for job seekers. Ideally, applicants provide information about themselves (such as location, qualifications, skills, etc.) in order to receive job offers that better match their individual needs. The platforms make money by selling vacancies to companies.
The competition is fierce: kronejobs.at is also strong in Austria, and willhaben.at also offers a “Jobs” section. Internationally, there are also the social job networks Xing and, above all, LinkedIn, a subsidiary of Microsoft. Dürhammer: “LinkedIn is one of the world’s largest players in e-recruiting.”
Greater willingness to change among young people
Overall, the outlook for the sector is good because, says Dürhammer: “People’s willingness to change jobs is increasing. The younger generation in particular is much more willing to change; loyalty to employers is not as great as it used to be. Many people who already have a job say to themselves when they discover something else: ‘I’m going to take a look at that and apply.’
This is also confirmed by Konjovic from karriere.at: “Companies used to be able to choose who they hired, but now things are different: applicants can increasingly choose which company they want to work for.”
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
