Always there when I need it, Craigslist has been saving me money and finding me work for as long as I can remember. The site as a whole is great and I thank Craig Newmark for keeping it going all these years. I typically check listings in my area each day for various jobs and things for sale, and typically find at least one good diamond in the rough. I was recently thinking about how useful Craigslist was to me as a college student and how it continues to be of help as I transition into that which most call “The Real World” (no, not the brain draining MTV show).
Out of curiosity I looked at Craigslist traffic over the last year to see if there were any abnormalities. I had predicted prior to checking that traffic likely increased as more and more people were looking for jobs in a tough market, and those looking for great deals on things for sale could find them in a secondary market where those who were listing items often needed the cash to pay bills more than they needed a motorcycle or television.
Since the end of 2008 Craigslist traffic has seen rapid growth, boasting a 20.8% three month change. What’s even more notable is the average 12.2 minutes spent on the site by users per day, nearly double the amount of time spent on other job sites. The site Ranked 27th in overall traffic volume by Alexa. This makes it a competitor against online job companies like Monster and Careerbuilder who are ranked 458 and 334. Even more notable are the average 5.7 and 6.3 minutes spent per day, respectively.
Is craigslist in the same game as the other job market players? The same game perhaps, but according to Jennifer Grasz, CareerBuilder’s media correspondent, the two compete in different arenas. “The question I would pose to [Craigslist] is how do they handle a request from an employer who needs 100 candidates or 5,000 candidates or needs a candidate for a niche position like an engineer with 20 years of experience,” Grasz says.
The answer is they don’t. Grasz is right in a sense that while Craigslist can provide employers with a medium to post general listings, they aren’t trying to compete with the services that other job sites offer. It is likely Craigslist’s nonchalant approach to its site that gives it such widespread acceptance and popularity. The suppression of commercialism if you will. Craigslist was not available for comment.
Much of economics is about analyzing inputs and outputs. Looking past the inputs that caused the output that is our current economic state, look at the current economic state as the input and the marginal change in spending habits by consumers as the output. The result is frugality as expressed by the rapid expansion of secondary markets like Craigslist.
