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Top 100 job site niches – 2009

by eric shannon on May 26, 2009 18 comments

top niche job boardsLooking for the 2011 guide to the top 100 US job board niches? This is the 2009 guide. For each top employment category it lists the top 3 or 4 niche job sites. But first, begin with The complete job search guide – how to land a job at a great company and make sure you aren’t wasting your efforts.

This report excludes:

  • job sites that lack top Google rankings
  • sites with high Google rankings but low credibility, authenticity or integrity.
  • sites which require registration or paid membership to be useful

It relies on my 12 years of experience running a top niche job board and dozens of hours of research. If you are deeply interested in the job board industry, you may also like to read my methods and observations companion to this report.

Here are the Cliff notes – there’s a flood of search engine spam out there. So avoid posting your job or resume the first place you come to. Remember the old saying “measure twice, cut once”. Look for websites with personality, that win meaningful awards, that are in the news, that publish a blog – whose credibility is clearly high.

First then, the top 30 job site niches. These rankings represent an average of 12 months search data at Google and are influenced by seasonal considerations as well as the recession — so take this top 30 for what it is, just a snapshot in time. the number in parentheses shows how the category moved up or down from 2008 to 2009.

If you are looking for a wider variety of job boards not covered by this report, you’ll find a more comprehensive directory of boards at JobBoardReviews.com.

1. management jobs (na)
2. sales jobs (+2)
3. engineering jobs (+13)
4. part-time jobs (na)
5. customer service jobs (na)
6. work at home jobs (-5)
7. medical jobs (-4)
8. nursing jobs (+20)
9. administrative jobs (na)
10. director jobs (na)
11. driver jobs(+4)12. marketing jobs (+4)
13. security jobs (+2)
14. accounting jobs (-9)
15. construction jobs (-2)		 16. warehouse jobs(-6)17. legal jobs (+11)
18. design jobs (na)
19. executive jobs (na)
20. government jobs (+1)
21. hospital jobs (na)
22. hr jobs (+5)
23. technician jobs (na)
24. receptionist & secretarial
25. entry-level jobs (-8)
26. finance jobs (-6)
27. food jobs (na)
28. student jobs (na)
29. IT jobs (na)
30. project jobs (na)

top 100 job board nichesIf this is in any way useful or interesting to you, please share it with your friends or readers if you’re a blogger or use Twitter (link HTML / graphics here)! If the response is good, you might encourage me to publish more research. Without further ado, here are all 100 categories and their job boards arranged alphabetically:

Legend

  • association – site is operated by an association and/or nonprofit
  • free - free for employers
  • growing! – compete.com shows significant and consistent traffic growth
  • IAEWS - displays International Association of Employment Web Sites logo

accounting accounting jobs

administrative

 

advertising


airport

art

attorney

automotive

bank

callcenter

ceo

clerical

college

communications

computer

construction

 

consulting

contract

corporate

creative

 

customer service

data entry

delivery

dental

design

 

director

distribution

driver

 

education

electrical

engineering

entry-level


environmental

executive

 

facilities

fashion

federal

finance

fitness

food


government


healthcare

home

hospital

hospitality & hotel

 

hr

 

insurance

international & overseas

internship

 

it

jobs for teens

 

laboratory

law enforcement

law

logistics

maintenance

management

manufacturing

marketing


mechanic

media

medical

 

merchandising

non profit

 

nurse

oil and gas

operations

 

part-time

pharmaceutical

pharmacy

photography

police

professional

 

project

 

public relations

qa

radio

real estate

receptionist & secretary

restaurant

 

retail

safety

sales

science

seasonal

secretary

security

senior and retirement

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18 comments…

  • Jeff Dickey-Chasins May 27, 2009 at 9:25 am

    Eric,
    Great work – a huge service to the job board industry. I can’t imagine how many hours this must gobble up of your time. Thanks!
    Jeff

    **es** lots, but it keeps me on my toes. thanks Jeff

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  • Dan Algerd August 7, 2009 at 12:06 pm

    It’s the best list of job boards I’ve ever seen on the Web.
    You provide huge service to the job search industry

    **es** Thank you Dan.

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  • Locate Jobs Network August 31, 2009 at 10:26 am

    I have to admit, I actually looked at this list prior to deciding which of our planned boards we’d launch first. Of course, we’ve launched according to our own research, but part of that research was this particular list. We veered off in some areas, and I’ve found that the "environmental" or "green" vertical is one that is extremely popular with job seekers lately. Sales jobs (in our network of sites) is the most popular for job posters (employers/recruiters). So, there’s a bit more information for those looking into the top vertical. Anecdotal, of course, but the trends we’re seeing are actually pretty strong. I would expect that if there is a 2010 list next year, that environmental/green jobs will be on the list.

    **es** i’m glad it was helpful…

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  • David B. Wright September 1, 2009 at 10:24 am

    Eric,
    Thank you for putting your time and effort into compiling this tremendously useful list. I really like that it’s not just a rehash of search results for niche job boards – it’s got far more value than a 5-second search on Google for "niche job sites."
    I’ve incorporated it into a blog post on The Job Search Strategist blog, at http://jobs.therecruiterslounge.com and am happy to share it with my readers.
    All the best,
    David B. Wright
    Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
    http://www.thegetajobbook.com

    **es** thanks so much David!

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  • Terri Cramer September 1, 2009 at 11:47 am

    Hi Eric–
    We are a small professional development program in learning & organizational change at Northwestern University. Many of our students are "career switchers," who have on average 11 years of work experience from all walks of life but who have come to love the human capital side of business and want to have a hand in creating healthy, productive places to work.
    NU has a very undergrad-centric career center, so I consider this resource you’ve created to be gold for my students. I am posting this to our Linked In site RIGHT NOW!
    Thank you! Thank you!
    Terri C.

    **es** thank you Terri!

     

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  • vicky September 22, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    WOW, that’s an awesome list, as a job searcher this list has been a big help. Thank u for your time and hard work in building this list.

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  • kate October 27, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    are there any sites that offer REAL paying work at home positions?

    **es** there are – but because of the imbalance in demand for these jobs, most are going to charge jobseekers. you might have a look at these and flexjobs.com

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  • melissa martin October 27, 2009 at 7:39 am

    Well done! This is the most comprehensive niche job listing I’ve yet to see. Will retweet this.
    Quick question: are any of these sites accessible to Canadians?
    Thank you.
    Melissa Martin
    bilingual career coach
    careercoachingbyphone.com

    **es** thanks, I imagine they are all accessible to Canadians

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  • Discover Policing October 30, 2009 at 1:12 pm

    Very interesting!! Unfortunately, we are low on Google ranking (workin’ on it though!) but high on credibility, authenticity, and integrity…
    http://www.DiscoverPolicing.org

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  • SM November 30, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    Brokeragejobs.com is another good financial jobs niche site. They’ve got some decent stuff and they keep things pretty simple.

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  • Amy S May 27, 2009 at 1:00 pm

    You never cease to amaze me Eric. What an incredible job, and as always, highly interesting and informative. Thanks!

    **es** Amy, you are very kind and I am so glad to see you here! 

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  • Rodion May 28, 2009 at 2:08 am

    Thanks Eric. Good job!
    But I think you’ve missed one niche which is getting popular in our days. It’s Renewable (Green) Energy industry. There are lots of job boards have been launched in this segment recently.

    **es** thank you Rodion. this list is based on the number of searches happening on Google for each keyword. the number of job boards that are launched in a category does not affect keyword search volumes much… so at this point, ‘environmental jobs’ is still much more popular than ‘renewable energy jobs’ or ‘green jobs’…

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  • Bill Vick May 28, 2009 at 6:10 am

    Wow! This has to be the best list of job boards I’ve ever seen and a tremendous job Eric. Thanks from all of us.

     **es**  very kind of you Bill, thanks!

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  • Momentum Specialized Staffing May 28, 2009 at 5:31 pm

    I really enjoy your posting, would you mine reviewing mine and give me some feed back?
    http://www.momentumstaffing.wordpress.com

    **es** I like your blog Michael and subscribed – keep up the good work!

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  • LarryD June 1, 2009 at 1:57 am

    Not only will this be useful for me personally but it will also be a great resource for the community at http://www.im-unemployed.com.
    I’ll post a link to this very soon.
    Thanks for all the hard work.

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  • Edouard Thoumyre June 9, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    As a third-party recruiter, I often notice that my clients, who all are in a very small niche market, never use niche job boards, whether in Food & Beverage, Luxury Goods or Wine & Spirits. They either go through job board everyone knows (Careerbuilder, Monster…) or contact an recruitment firm.
    I might need to take a closer look at them, but so far I haven’t been convinced.
    I am curious to hear other recruiters feedback too.

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  • Aviation Management Jobs June 6, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    I think your focus on credibility / authenticity / integrity is awesome and makes this a great list, but in clicking through to a lot of these sites, I see designs that detract from the site’s credibility.
    I think so many job board sites are handicapped by people using old technology to save a buck or two. They need to realize that there’s a huge connection between design and credibility as well. When I click onto a site that looks like a mess, I automatically start to doubt the value of its content. If the design is particularly bad, I might not even make it to the content.

    **es**  I share your sentiments about design.  Still, some of those uglier sites are among the most successful businesses!

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  • Peter Clayton June 22, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    Hi Eric,
    I too appreciate the work you put in to developing this list. There are several job boards you’ve included that are IAEWS members, not notated; and I’m sure they would appreciate inclusion:
    Dice Holdings
    talentzoo.com
    allhealthcarejobs (just acquired by Dice)
    higheredjobs.com
    nationjob.com
    callcenterjobs.com
    pharmadiversityjobboard.com
    retirementjobs.com
    astd.org (jobs/astd.org)

    Although I agree with the comments regarding design (you look at some of these sites and go, huh?) I think those of us who "live" on the Net are more aware of this than say, a nurse looking for a job. Do active job seekers really care about design?

    It seems to me what’s most important to job seekers is:

    1. Are these REAL jobs?
    2. Are these CURRENT jobs, still available?
    3. If I apply for a position on this job board, will my application be responded to? — Even a simple "thank you."
    4. Will the owner of this job board protect my privacy?
    5. Does this job board sell my personal information to 3rd parties (not recruiters).

    Although I have no stats to back this up, it seems the popularity and use of aggregrator sites like Simply Hired and Indeed have helped boost the popularity of these niche job boards.
    Keep up the good work!

    Peter Clayton

    Producer/Host
    Total Picture Radio
    IAEWS Member

    **es**  thanks Peter! I agree with your list.  The IAEWS designation is only for those sites that display the logo but I will review the ones you mention…

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