Nine Out Of Ten Job Portal Adverts Illegal, Says CAB

With many thanks to Welfare Weekly.

Nearly nine out of ten adverts on job portals fail to adhere to minimum Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) requirements, according to the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).

The advice charity warns that 88% of these adverts are wasting the time of thousands of job seekers struggling to find employment.

Vague job adverts are omitting vital information about wages and hours, says the CAB.

This leaves job seekers unable to determine whether a job will pay well enough to put food on the table and settle household bills.

Poor information could increase the likelihood of unsuitable applicants and risk putting people off from applying.

Citizens Advice analysis of 800 job adverts found:

• 2 in 5 adverts are unclear about whether the job is full or part-time.
• 1 in 5 adverts don’t tell applicants how much they will be paid.
• 2 in 5 adverts are not clear if the role is temporary or permanent.
• 1 in 10 jobs adverts do not specify either an employer or an agency, so applicants don’t know who they’re sending their details to.

The charity also discovered that self-employed jobs are not always advertised as such, with 12% of self-employment opportunities failing to identify the nature of employment.

Citizens Advice is calling on job portals to ensure that ads abide by ASA guidelines. Adding that websites should have clear methods in place for identifying job adverts that don’t meet these standards.

Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Vague job ads risk wasting people’s time and business’ money.

“People seeking employment face a real challenge if job adverts don’t even tell them if they’ll earn enough to keep a roof over their head. Applying for jobs where hours and pay are unclear consuming valuable hours of job hunting time.

“Employers can also have their time wasted as they receive high numbers of unsuitable applications. This can be an inefficient recruitment process, meaning they’re less likely to get the best person for the job.

“Requiring recruiters posting job adverts to include a minimum standard of information would help people decide whether to apply for a role.

“Employers would also benefit from a better matched pool of applicants.”