After deliberation in the Craigslist forums, the massively popular online classifieds site will begin imposing a fee on job postings in a quartet of new markets.
Famed for its modest pricing model and ubiquitous presence, Craigslist only charges fees in a handful of places for job postings. That list will grow by four markets: Chicago, Orange County, Portland, and Sacramento, effective November 1, 2007.
Classified Intelligence cited the announcement, which was posted on the Craigslist forums:
Over the last 6 months we have received a lot of feedback in this forum and by email, the consensus of which is that a $25 fee for posting jobs in these four cities would be beneficial, with many recent comments to the effect that we may have waited too long to implement such a fee.
Though some have balked at the new fee, many Craigslist devotees welcomed the announcement. Classified Intelligence noted the impact of adding job posting fees in markets previously by the site:
Job ads are a cash-cow for Craigslist; the number of job listings in New York and Los Angeles dropped substantially when the fee began, “but the volume quickly rebounded and by 2007 had more than tripled in each city,” the company said.
“After an initial drop-off in ad volume (in Boston, San Diego, Seattle and Washington) similar to that experienced in NYC and LA, the volume of legitimate job ads in these four cities has more than doubled.”
In addition to the job fees, Craigslist charges $10 for brokered apartment listings in New York City. Classified Intelligence believes the site’s job listings perform better, as fees drive out the junk postings.
