Find out how to post a job to Craigslist and see how the online classifieds site compares to popular job boards. This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money...
It’s quick and costs as little as $10 per post. And without too much effort, you could have your job posting live on Craigslist in under 20 minutes.
If you’re wondering how to post jobs on Craigslist in the first place, it’s probably because you’re looking for a job board that’s low cost and still capable of targeting job hunters in your community.
Craigslist is a good place to start your search for talent. After showing you just how easy it is to post your jobs on the site, we’ll also show you how the alternatives make it even easier to reach people who are more likely to respond to your job ad.
Step-by-Step Guide to Craigslist Job Postings
Start at the Craigslist homepage for your community — your browser should direct you there automatically, but you can select your community from the list of metro areas on the right side of the homepage if it doesn’t.
Select “Create a posting” on the homepage, specify the city or county the job is in, choose the “Job Offered” option and then choose the industry that the job is in. This should generate the Craigslist job posting form.
Fill out the job details: the job title, job category, job description, location and compensation fields. And use the drop-down menu to specify whether the job is full-time, part-time or contract.
Add your contact details and then give your listing a good review, especially the job description. Once you’re satisfied with your job listing, continue to submit your payment details and post your job to your Craigslist community.
Limitations to Posting a Job on Craigslist
Job postings have been an area that Craigslist has accommodated, more so than one that it has specialized in. Its community of classifieds has declined in prominence as social networking sites and mobile marketplaces have eaten away at its market share.
That lack of innovation and loss of ground helps to put the limitations of the site’s job board into perspective — it’s good for posting gigs but dated in its ability to reach more qualified candidates to fill even part-time and entry-level positions.
Craigslist’s presentation doesn’t exactly catch the eye, at least not these days.
It supports some basic HTML, and you can upload some images to your job posts, but you may bump your head against the site’s ceiling when trying to make your job posting attractive and include all of the assets you want to deploy.
If you’re looking to post your job opening in more than one community, you’ll have to create separate listings for each and pay that much more — that adds up.
In comparison, sites like ZipRecruiter give you the ability to target local candidates or to cast a much wider net by sharing your job posting to over 100 job boards.
One more consideration to keep in mind: Craigslist doesn’t offer any way to track applicants throughout the hiring process.
Businesses large and small benefit from applicant tracking. This type of recruiting software helps you manage incoming applications, compare candidates and track your interactions with them at every step of the way from “hello” to “hired.”
Applicant tracking system solutions come standard with the major job boards, but this isn’t the only vital feature you’ll miss out on if you choose Craigslist over ZipRecruiter, Indeed or even Facebook.
How It Compares to Posting Job Listings on ZipRecruiter
Compared to ZipRecruiter, it’s hard to find a single use case in which Craigslist’s job board is the better solution. When it comes to the features they share, ZipRecruiter does better than Craigslist with each.
It offers more robust job postings, a more flexible pricing model, more options for targeting job hunters, better control over visibility and solutions for building trust with applicants.
ZipRecruiter also offers a critical tool Craigslist does not: a resume database. It houses tens of millions of active resumes that you can browse to pursue candidates, instead of only waiting for them to find you.
Concerned you’ll be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of candidates your job listing will attract?
ZipRecruiter’s artificial intelligence tools can help you sort through candidates to arrive at a shortlist of prospects in a short amount of time.
Its AI-matching technology gleans and analyzes millions of data points from candidate profiles and resumes to send to a list of the candidates who’d suit your role best.
You’ll have to choose one of the site’s monthly subscriptions to access the resume database and other recruitment solutions. But you’re paying for efficiency and efficacy.
Think of it this way: you could save time and money by hiring someone quickly with ZipRecruiter’s resume database and hiring tools, instead of throwing money at a Craigslist job post month after month.
How It Compares to Posting Jobs on Indeed
While ZipRecruiter or CareerBuilder would make a much better comparison here, there are still some basic things Indeed has in common with Craigslist’s job board.
Like the other major job posting boards, Indeed offers a much cleaner presentation that’s more likely to attract job applicants than Craigslist.
Indeed also offers company pages, which helps ease the minds of applicants who might otherwise wonder if they’re walking into a scam.
Indeed also lets you promote your job post to increase the listing’s visibility to relevant job seekers. Recall that Indeed doesn’t offer any solutions to boosting the visibility of your job ads, and you have to create separate ads to post in multiple communities.
One key thing Craigslist and Indeed have in common is that they both have all but removed any financial barriers to posting.
Posting to Indeed is free, until your job posting attracts attention — it’s a slight variation of the free trial periods other major job boards use.
And you can post jobs to Craigslist for as little as $10 per post, though the price scales up to $75 depending on the size of the community you post in.
How It Compares to Posting Jobs on Facebook
If you’re finding that Craigslist’s per-post charges make its job boards more expensive than you’d anticipated and you want an even cheaper solution, consider posting jobs to Facebook.
It’s free if you promote it yourself. If you already have a significant presence on the social network, you could attract some interest by posting your job to your company page.
You’ll have to pay if you want to promote your ads to Facebook users outside of your friends list. One way around that is to ask your friends and followers to share your job posts with their connections.
Because Facebook doesn’t have a dedicated job board, the social network isn’t top of mind when it comes to searching for work. People tend to conduct their job search on job boards, plus there are still lots of people who don’t use the site at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not quite ready to post to Craigslist? We’ve rounded up a few of the most common questions on the subject from around the web to help you make a decision, especially if you skipped straight to the FAQs.
How do I post a job on Craigslist for free?
While free Craigslist job posts may be offered in some countries, you can’t post a job on Craigslist for free in North America. It costs between $10 and $75 to post a job on the site, with pricing based on the size of the community you post to.
Craigslist charges per-post fees for several categories: jobs, apartment rentals, commercial real estate, furniture sales, auto sales and more.
How much does it cost to post a job ad on Craigslist?
Craigslist charges $10 to $75 to post jobs on its job board. The price range is a sliding scale. Larger metro areas pay more, while smaller communities pay as little as $10 per post.
Is Craigslist a good place to post a job?
Craigslist is still one of the most visited websites in the US. The site is a good option for posting basic job listings for entry-level positions.
However, dedicated job boards like ZipRecruiter and CareerBuilder can help you reach more relevant candidates in much less time.
While Craigslist may be cheaper for posting a single job, the major job boards could save you money with their advanced hiring tools and efficiency.
Why does it cost to post on Craigslist Jobs?
Craigslist makes money from posting fees. It doesn’t just cost money to post jobs on Craigslist. There are posting fees attached to several categories on the site, ranging from job postings to commercial real estate listings.
Final Word
Though it’s still one of the most popular sites in the US, Craigslist has seen a slow and steady decline in popularity. It’s always been more known for its classified ads in general, and much less for its job board.
If you need to post a simple gig, Craigslist may be more feasible than other job sites. But if you plan to conduct a conventional hiring process or need to post multiple jobs, consider going with one of the major job boards.
A well-rounded job site like ZipRecruiter includes all the requisite recruiting software, such as applicant tracking and a resume database, along with modern conveniences like AI-assisted searches and candidate matching.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.