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Facebook app helps people find job 2012 Los Angeles Times by Jessica Guynn
Facebook Inc. is launching a new application to help its users hunt for jobs.

The app gives users access to more than 1.7 million job postings in the U.S. that are culled from companies that list jobs on Facebook, including Branchout, Jobvite and Work4 Labs.

For years, analysts have speculated that Facebook would harness its massive audience to take on professional networking site LinkedIn and job-hunting sites such as Monster.com.

A Facebook spokesman said the company is simply trying to make it easier for Facebook users to find and share job listings on Facebook.

Marne Levine, Facebook's vice president for global public policy, said in a statement that the app is part of a "broader effort to help people use social media to find jobs in the U.S."

LinkedIn Corp. doesn't view the new Facebook job-hunting app as a shot across its bow, a spokesman said.

"We don't see this as Facebook getting into the professional networking space," the LinkedIn spokesman said. "Facebook is aggregating jobs from various Facebook apps and putting them in one place."

A study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that half of employers use Facebook in their hiring process.

"Recruiters know that you recruit where the people are," said Dan Finnigan, chief executive of Jobvite. "Facebook is the most heavily used, most engaged application on the Internet with more time spent on it than any other application."

It's also popular with young people for whom the unemployment rate is particularly high, Finnigan said.

"This will be a big opportunity for recruiters to engage the right folks where they are," he said.

The app was born from a coalition that was formed a year ago.

The group, known as the Social Jobs Partnership, includes Facebook, the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the DirectEmployers Association and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said the app - which lets Facebook users search job listings by keyword, type of work, industry and location - would help "get America back to work."



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