Job Portal App Development: Market Overview, Features & Cost Estimations

New world, new rules. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the game for recruiters and job seekers alike. People increasingly use their phones to manage every aspect of their lives, including looking for jobs. Accordingly, dedicated mobile apps for job seekers are becoming popular. It’s not just high-tech specialists using these apps either, users come from a range of sectors and industries.

Data from Glassdoor shows that 58% of its US users job hunt on their phones, it also shows that mobile use differs significantly across industries. In food services, for example, 64.9% of job seekers use mobile devices to find work, and in media, the figure is much lower at just 43.2% . Transportation (63.1%) and retail (60.2%) also have a high number  of mobile job seekers. Accounting and legal (47.2%) and media sectors have the fewest mobile job seekers (47.3%). Note that even in industries with the least mobile job seekers, nearly half of all would-be employees are turning to their handheld devices.

It’s clear that mobile versions of job-search sites are a must, but they are not alone; dedicated job-portal apps are showing promising growth.

In the five years prior to the pandemic, job-portal app development saw some significant growth. Inch by inch, recruit software was gaining popularity. The year 2020 changed everything.

Recent statistics show that approximately 22.2 million jobs were lost during the pandemic-crisis. In March 2020, Forbes reported that weekly unemployment claims rose to a staggering 6.65 million. Since that time, things haven't changed greatly. Though, MadAppGang made a small research on the topic, and it seems that the overall trend is quite optimistic now. In the first quarter of 2021, the US Department of Labor reported that hiring had begun inching forward again. Retail, hospitality, and many other sectors are reopening and actively seeking of employees. Optimistic forecasters predict asignificant growth in the labor market in the US next year. 

However, since 2020 recruitment and work search are different. Owing to the advent of technology, even the most conservative companies won’t use leaflets or newspapers to fulfill the vacancies henceforth. Since 2020, an increasing number of companies rely on hiring apps for talent acquisition. Recruitment apps speed up and facilitate the whole process even in the face of quarantine, lockdown, and remote work. 

Source: simform.com

Meanwhile, the number of people using mobile devices to search for work skyrocketed during the pandemic year. Apps including Glassdoor, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, and others reported increased activity on their mobile job portal apps. 

Madrid-based Jobandtalent reports that its number of users is doubling every year. Even in the face of current events, the past year has been kind to Jobandtalent —it recently stated that revenue had reached €500 million with a positive EBITDA, a measure of a firm’s overall financial performance. 

Juan Urdiales, co-founder and CEO said: "The reason why we are raising more is because we are seeing a high potential now to grow even faster than expected. The pandemic has helped us with both workers and employers in terms of adoption of our platform. We have seen more adoption of new technologies in the last nine months than in the last five years."

Source: theundercoverrecruiter.com

In many ways, 2020 gave organisations with advanced digital recruitment strategies a distinct advantage, one that will likely continue as the pandemic wanes. According to many HR experts, a turnover “tsunami” is expected when the pandemic ends; a result of a confluence of factors including individuals embracing a YOLO attitude and companies that cannot adequately meet the demand for flexible and hybrid work models. Employment agencies, job consultancy firms, and job search websites that own job-portal mobile apps have a head start, while those without a dedicated app need to act fast.

For hiring managers:

• Fast and handy staff selection: Advanced recruitment software automatically selects and filters thousands of resumes to make a list of viable applicants with the required skills, experience, and expertise.
• Convenience and productivity: Recruiters can access necessary tools and data "on the go."
• Minimal human factor impact and improved productivity: The automation of all processes helps juggling multiple funnels.
• Easyt Fast interactions and engagement boost: Features such as notifications allow recruiters to reach candidates faster and even receive instant responses.

For enterprises:

• Reputation improvement and increased confidence: Job seekers have greater trust in the firms that invest in apps. Thus, job portal apps allow employers to promote their firm. According to a recent survey, over 78% of employers agree that a decent applicant tracking software (hiring apps included) makes hiring easier, and helps attract superior talent.
• New opportunities: You can expand your business if you already run a recruitment agency. Or, you can significantly facilitate and fasten the hiring process for a big corporation.

For candidates:

• Convenience: Job seekers can effortlessly access the job portal and get job alerts wherever they are.
• Regular job alerts: A good job recruitment app offers regular updates whenever there are job openings; candidates don’t miss any for their target jobs or the chance to kick-start their careers.
• Speed: Users have the instruments needed for quick searches, one-click applications, and hassle-free process.
• Familiar environment: Millennials and Gen Zers, who will constitute 80% of the workforce during the next 10 years, are mobile-first consumers.
• Data privacy: Candidates' personal details are kept private and only shared with consent.

Job portal app development is a multi-stage process that involves a collection of specific skills and knowledge of the job-search market. Before you start creating your app, you need to identify what you want to achieve, your current competition, and the problems in the industry your app will help solve. MadAppGang’s PMs are always open if you need help with map of your project. Based on your objectives, we can provide an overview of key features and functionalities for your app.

One thing is clear, to bring maximum value to users, your job portal app should be secure, stable, and user-friendly. It should have all the essential bases covered. With that in mind, here are the common features in job portal app development.

User panel essential features:

• Sign up/login 
• Edit profile
• Upload resume
• Job filters 
• Mail resume
• Job alerts
• Save jobs

Recruitment panel essential features:

• Registration
• Uploading jobs 
• Job posting/job invitation
• E-mailing offers 
• Filtering resumes 
• Payment options and membership plan changes
• Resume download 

Admin panel essential features:

• Dashboard
• CMS
• Job ad management
• Real-time analytics
• User profile
• Recruiter profile 
• Review and feedback data collection

Then, according to your needs and objectives, you can add advanced features to bring your hiring app to the next level.

For users: 

• Document scanner
• Document management module
• In-app chat & video conference
• CV creation tool
• eLearning lessons
• Ticketing and booking
• Custom dashboards

For tech staff and admins:

• CRM integration
• CMS integration
• ERP integration
• Real-time analytics
• Cloud environment

It can be challenging to correctly calculate the cost of job portal app development when you’ re just entering the app development world. You’ve probably seen a wide range of prices (from a mere $5,000 to $75,000 and higher). The truth is that cost hinges on your requirements, including the number and type of features you want to integrate. What is immediately clear is that outsourcing to a reliable software development team is more cost-efficient and less time-consuming.

Let's see which specialists you need to build a job-search application board:

• Project manager (PM) to identify your needs, create a road map for the project, manage your app development squad, etc.
• Android or/and iOS developers, and bBack-end developers to bring your ideas to life and build a job board that fulfills all your requirements
• UX/ UI designers to make your app attractive
• Testers and QA engineers to ensure a smooth job search app experience.

Looking for such specialists and building a team can take months and requires significant financial investment already at the recruitment stage. A development company, meanwhile, already has qualified staff in place, as well as its own office and hardware. No need to train staff, spend time getting them acquainted with the company policies and processes, building a team, and so forth. Instead, you spend less time worrying about the technical details (because you have experts working for you) and you get the product to market faster.

The face of job-search and recruitment is changing, as too are the ways people look for work. To tap into these changes and capitalise on the incoming job-seeker tsunami, it’s wise to look into a dedicated job portal application. If you need assistance designing or product, or you’re looking for a qualified and experienced team, recruit us!

MadAppGang is a full-service development agency and we’ve worked on numerous high-profile applications. We can help you bring your ideas to fruition and build you a clever, intuitive, and full-featured app. For more information, please get in touch today.

FAQs:

Are job search and other apps profitable?

The global app market is constantly growing in response to increased demand. If you would like to learn how to monetize an app, check out our blog post The Size of the Mobile Application Development Market in Australia and Beyond. Lena Zhyvkova, MadAppGang's market research analyst, examines the size of the market size and key monetization models.

How much does an app developer cost?

It depends where the developer lives! MadAppGang researched app developer' salaries and fees around the world. Read the results in our short guide to: The Cost of Hiring an App Developer: Global Salaries and Rates.

How much does it cost to make a mobile app?

The cost varies according to your requirements and the platform you choose (iOS, Android, or both). To help you understand which platform will work for you the best, check out our short guides: 

• Price of iOS App Development: When to Choose iOS and How Much It Costs
• "Price of Android App Development: Why Choose Android and How Much Does It Costs".

How much time will it take to create a job portal app?

It depends on your requirements. An experienced app development team will deliver a result at the earliest possible date. Normally, building a complicated app with lots of advanced features takes several months to a year or more. Do not believe companies that promise you to build an app within a few weeks. It’s only possible if they omit important development stages (for example, testing). Check out our blog post Six Reasons Why You Should Fire Your Mobile App Development Company' for other red flags to watch out for when evaluating development companies.

Is Kotlin programming language better to build my job search app?

Kotlin is a modern, concise, and more readable programming language that’s less susceptible to bugs. Will it work for your business? Get more information here.