The most significant development for the industry, as it was for practically every industry in the industrialised world, was the development of the internet . . . although the web was around for a relatively long time before it became part of the mainstream of recruitment. So whereas a decade ago, online recruitment was very much an add-on feature within the overall mix - with traditional routes such as newspaper advertising holding sway - these days it is the pre-eminent form of recruitment, with other media playing a supporting role or delivering solutions to niche areas.

That said, there will always be a role for the print media, insofar as it is used as a branding exercise by many recruitment companies, even if the majority if activity is done through the internet.

"Ireland has undergone a radical transformation in the last decade, " said Valerie Sorohan, marketing manager with IrishJobs. ie. "The changing jobs market over the past ten years called for a medium through which jobs could be advertised efficiently but, more importantly, cost effectively. During the celtic tiger years, there was huge pressure on companies to identify jobseekers to fill an ever increasing number of job vacancies. The internet offered the perfect solution to delivering that wide and varied audience."

As proof of the growth in popularity of the internet, 62,730 jobseekers visited the IrishJobs. ie website in 2000, creating 1,494,659 page impressions. Just seven years later, and the same audited figures show that the IrishJobs. ie site is visited 781,305 times per month by over 413,000 different jobseekers who view 9,014,960 million pages.

Indeed, the cost effectiveness, coupled with the ease of use of the internet, meant that on-line recruitment actually bucked the trend of the slowdown in recruitment that came about in 2001 "A slower economy meant greater pressure on HR budgets, but staff turnover was still an issue, " explained Sorohan. "The internet again provided the perfect advertising platform in leaner times . . . it had become a proven medium, delivering a very large job-seeking audience, but most importantly it was and remains the most cost effective means of advertising vacancies in Ireland."

This growth has managed to permeate practically every sector in the jobs market.

While in the past, online recruitment may have seemed more suited to the IT sector, this is no longer the case. On-line is now mainstream, and both the jobseeker and recruiter in Ireland have now become much more internet savvy.

So are there any sectors which have been slow to get the message?

"The Public Sector is very slow and reluctant to change from its traditional forms of recruitment . . . mainly advertising in newspapers, " admitted Sorohan. "Despite wanting to attract new blood to their organisations, most in the public sector are reluctant to advertise their jobs online, thereby not tapping into the hundreds of thousands of quality jobseekers that visit online recruitment sites every month; and also not tapping into the cost and time efficiencies associated with advertising online."

While on-line advertising works across practically all levels of business, it is still true that executives will tend to leaf through the pages of the broadsheets looking for movement at a more senior level. Indeed, the more senior position it is that is being advertised, the more likely it is that it will appear in a newspaper.

"On-line is where most activity is taking place, although senior executives will still go to newspapers to find out about positions at their level, " said Kate Casey of Gilligan Black Recruitment, a recruitment consultancy which specialises in banking, financial , HR and office staff recruitment.

Outside of newspapers and the web, another form of job advertising is increasingly becoming more widely used . . . the medium of radio advertising. And it is on the radio that Gilligan Black has, to date, conducted a very successful campaign.

"We use a well know radio station, which is geared towards the 25 . . . 35 age bracket, as they are the most likely to change, " said Casey.

"Radio is successful, in that it is more subliminal . . . a person can be sitting in their car, on the bus or walking to work listening to the radio, and our message will be getting through. It is an ongoing campaign, we change our jobs every three to four days, and several of our last placements have been as a result of our radio advertising campaign" Despite a relatively low percentage of jobs which are filled through the radio (as compared to the internet), it is nonetheless considered by many advertisers to be an important part of the mix, again as much for branding as it is for the actual filling of positions. The fact that people might hear an ad and be referred to a website means that radio is doing its job, while those candidates sourced directly through the airwaves demonstrates that there is life outside of the information superhighway . . .at least for now.