Click here to view an 11-minute video of the key findings.

Click here to download a PDF of the slides.

To profile hiring decision makers, the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® commissioned MARU/Matchbox to field a study in December 2024. 1,000 respondents were surveyed to explore the labor market.

These findings were compared to similar studies conducted over the last seven years in 2018, 2021 and 2022. This report will focus on hiring decision makers. A prior study examined job seekers.

Here are the key findings:

• A large proportion of hiring decision makers are themselves passive and active job seekers.
• Among hiring decision makers, ad recall, and usage is highest for Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter.
• Ad-supported audio is the ideal platform to reach hiring decision makers as 96% are audio listeners. 82% of hiring decision makers regularly listen to AM/FM radio via over the air.
• Share of voice drives share of market: An analysis of MediaRadar spending of employment brands reveals there’s a strong correlation between ad spend, ad recall, and market share.
• Hiring decision makers can be reached across a wide variety of AM/FM radio programming formats and podcast genres.

Nearly eight in ten hiring decision makers are also job seekers

Talk about eating your own ice cream! 31% of hiring decision makers are actively looking for a new role and 47% are passive job seekers, meaning they would be open to a new opportunity.

Hiring decision makers are more likely to be active job seekers (31%) than the general employed population (25%). The same proportion of hiring decision makers (47%) and the working universe say they are passive job seekers.

Job site brand scorecard: Indeed and Linkedin lead the market while ZipRecruiter occupies the next tier

Versus 2022, consideration and brand usage are up for all brands, indicating hiring decision makers are making greater use of job sites.

The famous Binet and Field “share of voice/share of market” relationship

Popularized by marketing effectiveness experts Peter Field and Les Binet, the “share of voice/share of market” visual explains how brands grow.

On the vertical axis is share of voice, which is defined as a brand’s ad budgets as a percentage of category ad spend. Divide ad spend by total spend in your category.

Share of market is a brand’s revenue as a percentage of category revenues. Combined on a chart, these two measures project the future growth of a business or brand.

• If share of voice exceeds share of market, sales tend to grow.
• If share of voice is similar to share of market, sales tend to be stable.
• If share of voice is smaller than share of market, sales tend to shrink.

Inspired by the Binet and Field’s “share of voice/share of market” concept, here is a similar visual where the job sites’ total advertising spend via MediaRadar across all media is plotted on the vertical axis. On the horizontal axis is ad recall, or the “use most” response, from the brand study is used as a reasonable stand in for market share.

There is a linear relationship between ad spend and advertising recall

The greater the spend, the greater the ad recall. Small brands with low ad spend have modest ad recall. Bigger spending brands have greater advertising recall.

The greater the ad spend, the greater the market share

The next visual below has total ad spend on the vertical axis and the “use most” response from hiring decision makers on the horizontal. Most of the brands are right on the line, save one: ZipRecruiter.

ZipRecruiter’s ad spend is greater than it’s “use most” market share. This implies that ZipRecruiter’s extra share of voice predicts future growth for the brand.

A stunning 96% of hiring decision makers are reached by ad-supported audio, the ideal media platform to reach hiring decision makers

82% of hiring decision makers are reached by AM/FM radio monthly. 71% listen to podcasts. 62% listen to AM/FM radio streaming.

Hiring decision makers can be reached on a wide array of AM/FM radio programming formats

When is comes to podcast genres, hiring decision makers listen to a broad diversity of content

The ideal media plan should spread investment over a wide selection of AM/FM radio programming formats as well as podcast genres. 

Key findings

• A large proportion of hiring decision makers are themselves passive and active job seekers.
• Among hiring decision makers, ad recall, and usage is highest for Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter.
• Ad-supported audio is the ideal platform to reach hiring decision makers as 96% are audio listeners. 82% of hiring decision makers regularly listen to AM/FM radio via over the air.
• Share of voice drives share of market: An analysis of MediaRadar spending of employment brands reveals there’s a strong correlation between ad spend, ad recall, and market share.
• Hiring decision makers can be reached across a wide variety of AM/FM radio programming formats and podcast genres.

Click here to view an 11-minute video of the key findings.

Pierre Bouvard is Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group^®.

Contact the Insights team at CorpMarketing@westwoodone.com.