There has been a constant stream of seriously depressing news lately.  I see high gas prices, impending recession stories and of course the rising unemployment rate.  We have all grown up with the same employment websites and expect these sites to be great resources to find good jobs.  Recent articles and blogs have reported a shortage of good job listings on job boards.  Job boards include general employment websites like indeed.com as well as industry association websites like the American Medical Association.  The vast majority of these job boards make money by charging employers to post a job.  And while that model has worked for employers in the past, times are quickly changing.  Peter Weddle, an expert in the job board market, estimates that there are now over 50,000 job boards operating across the Web.  Because technology is cheap, anyone can operate a seemingly credible job board right out of their bedroom and it might look as good as the larger operations.  Because these job boards are widening the gap between employers and job seekers, employers are finding it difficult to connect with the right candidates.  And because the “pay to post” pricing model places all the risk squarely on the employer with no guarantee of finding a quality candidate, employers are beginning to abandon the “pay to post” model.  Unfortunately this means the job listings are moving too.    Instead many of these employers and recruiters are now posting their jobs on pay for performance employment sites like the one I work for called Realmatch (of course I'm biased).  Employers also post jobs on free classified boards like Craigslist.  Barron’s recently reported that job listings on Monster.com were down 18% on a year-over-year basis, with a 21% drop in May.  Look at it this way: with gas prices so high, the airlines can barely afford to keep their planes in the air so they would rather not pay to post a job especially when the unemployment rate is so high and they have alternative sites to list with.  I only use airlines as an example but many industries are feeling the pinch of a cooling economy.  Since job postings can cost $300 each, companies that hire dozens or hundreds or people are realizing significant savings by posting free.  This is why the job listings are beginning to disappear from “pay to post” employment sites and re-appear on alternative employment sites.  Yes, I’d love for you to try Realmatch but even if you don’t, think about all the websites where employers in your industry or location can now post jobs free.  If you’re looking for a job, you’ll want to fish where the fish are!  If you thought that the good jobs had all vanished you were wrong, they just moved.  Don’t worry; the sky isn’t falling, good luck.