Is Facebook Cooking Up a Jobs Board?

Facebook could launch a searchable job board later this summer, according to a report. If true, the entry would tread on LinkedIn‘s territory.

Citing “people familiar with the matter,” Dow Jones reported earlier this week that the social networking giant was preparing to aggregate job postings from third parties. The effort involves at least three companies that already use Facebook as a professional network hub, including BranchOut, Work4 Lab and Jobvite, according to the report.

Reps from Facebook could not be reached for comment.

Though leveraging Facebook’s 900 million-plus user base might worry any competitor in the estimated $4.3 billion online job-recruitment category, based on the report, LinkedIn can probably relax. “It doesn’t feel like a big effort that they’ve worked on for a long time,” said one source quoted in the report. “It feels lightweight.” The goal of the site is less to compete in a new market than to drive more engagement, the source told Dow Jones. It’s also unclear how the job postings would circulate and if they’d appear in Facebook’s News Feed or elsewhere on the site. However, a serious entry by Facebook into the market could disrupt LinkedIn’s business, especially since many recruiters already prefer Facebook to LinkedIn.

The report comes after Facebook partnered with the U.S. Department of Labor in October for a “Social Jobs” portal that makes easily accessible educational content and tools from its partners at the Department of Labor, National Association of Colleges and Employers, DirectEmployers Association, and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. It plans to promote this page in the 10 states with the highest unemployment rates and Puerto Rico. Facebook has also promised to conduct surveys about how job hunters, recruiters and college career departments use social media.

Image courtesy of Flickr, bgottsab