We are 100% supporters of Career Builder. As restaurant recruiters we find our best results come from Career Builder.

Here’s an article that validates our allegiance to Career Builder.

Monster officially acquired HotJobs from Yahoo last week, paying $225 million for the third largest U.S. job board, and setting in motion what may be a new chapter in the race for market share with Careerbuilder.

Even with the acquisition, Careerbuilder is still larger in terms of traffic and exposure to newspapers and other media outlets (1600 partners vs 1000 for Monster/HotJobs). But, as part of the acquisition of HotJobs, Monster negotiated a high profile spot on Yahoo’s navigation bar, which they speculate will even the playing field.

Should be interesting to watch. Clients of both Monster and Careerbuilder seem to prefer one or the other…kind of like Coke and Pepsi.

So who’s bigger now?

Well, depends on who you ask and in what area.

In terms of Traffic…

Careerbuilder has been the traffic leader for several years. They claim 21 million unique visitors monthly. According to Compete.com, for the past 3 months, Careerbuilder has shown roughly 13-14 million unique visitors, while Monster has had about 10 million unique visitors. In any case, Careerbuilder has been consistently 30-40% stronger in traffic than Monster.

Monster will add potentially another 5 million uniques from HotJobs. So, depending on who you ask, Careerbuilder’s traffic advantage could be reduced – but to what degree?

In terms of Revenue…

CareerBuilder’s North American revenue in 2009 was $542 million, including both US and Canadian revenue. Monster tracks U.S. revenue separately at $407 million for 2009, and includes Canada in the category of “International.”

Internationally, Monster shows $905 million in revenue for 2009.
Estimates of HotJobs revenue are in the $80 to $100 million range. That would certainly bring Monster in a lot closer to Careerbuilder’s North American revenue – especially considering the Canadian factor.

Careerbuilder doesn’t disclose international sales.

So basically, you can make a few assessments from that but at the end of the day, this looks like a good old American competition that may continue to ebb and flow – kind of like Coke and Pepsi!

Good Deal or Fixer-upper?

Yahoo acquired HotJobs in 2002 for roughly $445 million in cash and stock. Now, 8 years later, Monster is buying HotJobs for nearly half of that at $225 million.

Monster will also be spending an extra $20 to $30 million a year for three years for great exposure on Yahoo as their official job board and a redirect from the Yahoo navigation bar.

Multiples for Job board acquisitions typically run 4 to 5 times sales. So, if HotJobs was doing $80 to $100 million in sales, an acquisition price of $340 to as high as $500 million may have once been realistic. But considering the recession, the current economic climate, and the additional revenue Yahoo will get from Monster’s three year advertising deal, it seems like a win win for both Monster and Yahoo.

Will it be enough to catch Careerbuilder traffic?

Maybe not, but it buys Monster some time to come up with something more interesting…like…say…integrating with social media?

Hmmmm. Wonder how that might work…

Having been a restaurant recruiter in the hospitality industry for over 20 years, it’s pretty clear that Americans are ultra conservative when it comes to where they chose to dine. Whereas other countries have really bizarre restaurant concepts like toilet themes and jail themes, probably the most “out there” concept in this country is one where the servers scream at the customers.

This video shows a really “far out” restaurant concept which is located in a prison for the crimnally insane.  You actually dine in a jail cell, eat strange foods out of stranger serving dishes! It’s hugely popular with lines of customers wrapped around the building waiting for a “cell” in which to eat. Somehow I cannot picture this being successful in Washington DC!

As recruiters in the hospitality industry, we are seeing more “healthy” restaurant chains emerging as well as more “healthy” choices added to the menus of our current favorite restaurants. After researching this trend, I found that an actual study has been recently completed. The findings are below as reported in an article in Nation’s Restaurant News.

Number of dishes labeled as “healthy” jumped 65% from last year

Data released Wednesday by the Chicago-based market research firm found the number of menu items that restaurants labeled as “healthy” increased 65 percent from the second quarter of 2009 through the second quarter of 2010.

The study also found the number of menu items featuring fruits or vegetables increased 10 percent between the second quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2010. Menu items labeled as vegetarian increased 12 percent during that same three-year period.

Mintel said it monitored 350 of the largest chain restaurants, 200 independent restaurants and 25 beverage-centric restaurants for the study.

In another study that polled 2,000 adults online, respondents told Mintel they were eating more healthfully when dining out, and ordering more fruits and vegetables when choosing their menu items.

“Healthy menu development opportunity exists in providing vegetable and seafood appetizers, soups, salads and entrées,” said Eric Giandelone, director of food research at Mintel. “An added bonus in offering these ingredients is if [they are] prepared thoughtfully, they will naturally cut down on the fat and calories of a menu item, making it a more favorable choice for their patrons.”

Giandelone also said operators should follow guidelines recommended last month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which urged restaurants to pay more attention to creating healthful kids’ menus in order to fight the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic.

“Restaurants should start considering how they’re going to make kids’ menus healthier,” Giandelone said. “It’s important to get feedback from both parents and kids to provide a healthy balance on the menu that kids will want to eat and parents will approve of.”