Employers, Have You Considered Craigslist Yet?
If you hang around the internet, then it's only a matter of time before you discover Craigslist. We first posted a story on Craigslist a couple years back. Back then, the free, community moderated site had picked up major momentum in larger cities and was just starting to gain traction in places like Buffalo. Today their local classifieds and forums have grown to 450 cities worldwide. Craigslist now generates 8 billion page views per month. The number of total job listings is staggering. Craigslist is still a largely free resource that many Western New York employers are not taking advantage of.
If you're young and at all computer savvy, then chances are that you're looking for employment on Craigslist. A friend of mine was searching the local listings on the site recently and she commented on the lack of WNY employers that were posting their listings in the 'jobs section'. We've all heard that there is a lack of jobs in Buffalo. We've also heard that there is a lack of qualified employees. Whether that is true or not... it all depends on who you ask. If the basic system of connecting potential employees to open jobs slots is broken... or was never really operating right to begin with, then the wheels will keep spinning.
Here's a link to Buffalo's Craigslist. If you're an employer and your available job openings are not posted there, then consider doing so. You never know who's out there looking. Until these types of sites are running the way they should be (in Buffalo), there will always be missed opportunities on both sides of the local job placement market.
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Denizen
QE, great thing to bring up!
The job section on Buffalo's Craigslist page really sucks. When browsing jobs I've found myself wading though endless listings of scams, work from home/get rich schemes, and questionable employment not even based in WNY before I get to real listings by genuine local employers. I've done my fair share flagging every dodgy post I come across, but the section doesn't get any less polluted. I've gone to other cities pages and their jobs listings are almost all legit.
I'm not sure if this is a moderation problem or just lack of participation by local employers to drown out the spam. Then again, so many WNY employers are kind of "old school"; stuck back in the days when everyone cliped job listings out of the News' classifieds section. Perhaps there is a lack of young, tech savvy-people in WNY, but I don't think that's the case. Maybe employers need to wake up, I hear many of them have a really hard time finding talented candidates in this area to fill positions.
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al-alo
i dont know about scams, there denizen. that male guides and companions job seems pretty real to me. all it costs is 25 dollars to get on their list, then the money just rolls in!
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Auburner
Craig's List... Hookers...
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chiknlil
Craig's list is amazing, and there are no editors with agendas to edit your comments.
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viking
Be entertained read the best of Craig's list, it's amazing what people post and comment on. Laughing out aloud alone is a great way to weather this storm.
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dpbflo
I use craigslist often to post help wanted listings. I do get a positive response. I just recently hired a Head Chef from my craigslist posting and seems to be exactly what I was looking for. I was also surprised at the number of out of towners planning to move to Buffalo that had sent resumes for the position.
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stephenjames716
craigslist is a great resource. when I lived in LA I used it to furnish my apartment, sell everything that I didn't need and buy plane tickets cheap for every trip back home. Buffalo's list is still growing, but is a great FREE resource none the less.
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Dan
Browsing through individual city listings on Craigslist, I found that the amount of posting in hip, trendy, tech-savvy cities tends to be several orders of magnitude higher than traffic in more mundane but equally-populated locales. For an example, when I look at CL furniture listings in Cleveland, there isn't much, and the furniture that is usually listed is pretty bad; floral pattered couches, kountry kitsch coffee tables, dirty used mattresses selling for 90% of retail, and so on. In places like Denver and Austin, there are far more furniture listings, the quality of what's being sold is much higher, and the prices are more reasonable. Reflecting on this, I thought "Could Craigslist could be used as one indicator of a "cool city?"
A couple of weeks ago, as an experiment, I came up with a very basic formula to determine the popularity of Craigslist in various cities: furniture by owner listings per month / MSA population * 100,000. Here's the results for a few cities.
Austin: 13,568 furniture by owner listings within the month | 13,568 FBO / 1,249,763 MSA = .00638 * 100,000 = 1,085
Denver: 15,387 furniture by owner listings within the month | 15,387 FBO / 2,408,750 MSA = .00638 * 100,000 = 638
Charlotte: 5,137 furniture by owner listings within the month | 5,137 FBO / 1,583,016 MSA = .00324 * 100,000 = 324
Seattle: 8,759 furniture by owner listings within the month | 8,759 FBO / 3,203,314 MSA = .00273 * 100,000 = 273
Albuquerque: 1,760 furniture by owner listings within the month | 1,760 FBO / 729,649 MSA = .00241 * 100,000 = 241
Grand Rapids: 1,756 furniture by owner listings within the month | 1,756 FBO / 1,088,514 MSA = .00161 * 100,000 = 161
Cleveland: 2,980 furniture by owner listings within the month | 2,980 FBO / 2,148,010 MSA = .00138 * 100,000 = 138
Buffalo: 1,318 furniture by owner listings within the month | 1,318 FBO / 1,219,054 MSA = .00108 * 100,000 = 108
El Paso: 220 furniture by owner listings within the month | 220 FBO / 736,310 MSA = .000029 * 100,000 = 30
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Dan
One thing about the job market in Buffalo: because there are few corporate headquarters in Buffalo, small private and family-owned businesses dominate. More so than for publicly owned companies, job openings are not advertised, but rather word of them are spread through word-of-mouth. Family-owned businesses, even larger enterprises, often hire mostly from inside the family, with outsiders having little chance of getting in. Those that do can find working their way up the ladder difficult; business owners are more apt to promote their stepcousin-twice-removed Rocco rather than a non-family member.
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EricOak
Dan, I think you're oversimplifying (and stereotyping) the business climate in Buffalo just a bit. There are many unique, interesting companies started in Buffalo. "Hip and trendy" is not the tone I think we should aim for. Buffalo was once a hip and trendy city--look where that got us. And as for the shabby quality of Cleveland furniture, all I can say is that the cultural depth of Cleveland (and Buffalo) is miles above that of Denver and Austin. If we're using furniture sales on Craigslist as a measure for anything, we're wasting a lot of time.
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BROKEEPSBLOCKINGME
craigslist in buffalo? Most people barely have dial up Internet
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galaxyjay
mmm dial-up..good times...I remember when prodigy came out :)
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Denizen
Eric, Buffalo was never a hip and trendy city. It was built on transportation logistics, brawn, and some great minds. Back in the old days cities didn't need to capitalize on ephemeral cultural qualities like "hipness","flavor" and "trendiness" in order to grow, they were a necessity. Throughout most of human history, cities were places where the starving masses from the countryside flocked to for a better life.
You repeatedly bemoan today's supposed "hip and trendy" cities as being shallow places with little depth and then proceed to scratch your head as to why such a marvelous city like Buffalo is in such a nasty economic condition. In contemporary, consumer-driven North America, most of the old city centers became obsolete, being effectively left behind in the dust, while a small handful were able to stay relevant.
Sad but true, attracting "hip and trendy" people and businesses is what successful city centers MUST do in this day in age when cheap gas and affordable cars allow people to live wherever they want in the vast sprawling metro area that defines modern day America. The average Joes and Janes usually choose the spacious house with a big yard on a quiet street in suburbia. As a result, older city centers have to compete with the surrounding sprawl that this majority seems to gravitate towards. Old city centers are at a rigged heavy disadvantage, therefore they must reinvent themselves to the appeal of niche tastes and interests; this involves offering a lifestyle that the suburbs are hard pressed to provide: hip and trendiness.
Dan's craigslist forumla us spot on, btw.
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ShampooGirl
Good post. My organization posted a job opening on Craigslist, as well as in the Buffalo News. It's a viable resource that shouldn't be overlooked.
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