Fragmentation - I know it’s here somewhere

The employment market is peculiar in that it is dominated and organized by buyers rather than sellers. In most markets that we encounter in our everyday lives it is the sellers who set out their stalls, price and advertise their goods or services, and await buyers who are willing to purchase.

In the employment marketplace it is almost the complete opposite: the buyers (employers) put an order for labour out and then choose from those sellers (employees) who put themselves forward. This process becomes more acute as the market contracts.

The issue for sellers in this market is that it is very hard to get noticed. Not only are there many other sellers, but one ends up having to place information about the services one can offer (skillset) in multiple, fragmented locations: posting CVs to job advertisers like Monster, to individual recruitment agency websites, and to employer websites. The result of this is that one can quickly lose track of what information one has uploaded, and where. 

This is where sites such as LinkedIn, Ecademy, and GazetMe have real benefits to offer. By providing tools that allow sellers in the employment market to set out their stalls in a manner that they control, these services are starting to pull the market around towards the seller. Even in a highly competitive marketplace where buyers are overwhelmed with choice, those buyers still want to find the best people for the job. And wise ones will consider looking for such talent, rather than just waiting for it to come to them.