Job Search App Development Cost Estimate & Key Features

Over recent years, things have drastically changed in the recruitment industry. Owing to the advent of technology, companies no longer use newspapers and leaflets to advertise about vacancies in their firm. Instead, they rely on digital platforms like job search mobile app or web portals to recruit the best talent for their organization. On the other hand, job seekers are relieved of running from one company to another for dropping their resume.

Initially, websites like Monster.com, Naukri.com, etc. helped the candidates to hunt for their preferred jobs but eventually, the tech-savvy generation is looking forward to quicker and reliable mobile solutions. Today, 65% of job seekers are searching for jobs 24 x 7 across the world using their smartphones.

The ever-growing popularity of job portal apps and job sites in UK has immensely transformed the scenario of exploring the right job, making the entire process a comfortable task. These recruitment mobile apps can assist job seekers in creating resumes, identifying suitable jobs, connecting with employers, and realizing opportunities. At the same time, these apps have simplified the process for employers, helping them recruit the best talent for the job.

Given this humongous potential of job portals and recruitment mobile apps, entrepreneurs are increasingly taking interest in joining hands with top mobile app development companies to bring their apps to the market. If you too are looking to develop your own job search mobile app, here’s how you can do that.

Job Recruitment Industry Statistics and Market Size

The online recruitment sites have witnessed exponential growth since the 2000s. With the internet becoming a prominent part of everyone’s life, there has been an increase in the use of recruitment sites by both job seekers and employers.

Indeed has become the top-rated job and recruitment portal across the world. The platform connects over 250 million unique visitors every month by allowing them unrestrained access to its large job database.

Another interesting report shows that the Indeed mobile app has been downloaded 46 million times globally, which includes over 20 million downloads in the U.S. alone. Over 50% of the platform’s traffic now comes from mobile devices.

Employment in the United States from 2010 to 2020

Need for Job Search  Apps

Let us also look at some statistics that reveal the importance of having a job portal mobile app:

• 68% of the U.S. population owns a mobile phone. Of these, at least 41% have searched for jobs using their smartphone.
• 59% of the candidates use their smartphone and recruitment mobile apps every day to look for new jobs and positions in the industry.
• Out of all the people who have conducted job searches on their mobile, at least 23% have a resume or cover letter uploaded to their smartphones to make the search and application process much easier.
• 60% of the candidates view the company page on their mobile phone and 39% of them apply for the vacancy using their phone.

Some Popular Job Search Apps

Linkedin Job Search, Glassdoor, SnagAJob, JobAware, Indeed, and Good&co Culture Fit are some of the popular job search apps available online.

Benefits of Job Portals & Recruitment Apps for (Job Seekers & Recruiters)

One of the greatest advantages of using job portals is that it offers endless job opportunities. Job seekers can easily navigate through various job vacancies and find the one that best suits their requirements.

Advantages of job search mobile  apps for job seekers

• Cost-effective: The candidates are likely to spend on food, transportation, and formal attire when it comes to walk-in interviews. But with online job portals, they can easily apply for their desired job without breaking their wallet.
• Regular job alerts: A good job recruitment app offers regular updates whenever there are job openings. This ensures that the candidates don’t miss any chance to apply for their target job and kick-start their careers.
• Confidential: Once a candidate has registered himself as a job seeker, all his personal details, achievements, skills, etc. will be kept private. They will only be shared if the candidate approves of it.
• Efficient: Job portals are very effective in finding your perfect job. They shorten the recruitment cycle. The candidates simply need to submit their resume online and wait for future employers to respond.
• Endless job opportunities: All good portals list a full array of job vacancies from top companies. One can browse through the list to select the job they have always desired.

Benefits of job portals & recruitment apps for employers

• Easy selection of candidates: Using a job portal, you can easily view a list of the applicants with the needed experience, skills, and expertise. This can make the hiring process much easier and efficient.
• Promotes the firm’s brand: Job portals enable employers to promote their firm online. According to a survey, 80% of the employers agree that through these portals, brands are able to augment their ability to attract superior talent.
• Easy resume search: Most job portals have easy-to-use filters. You can set the right filters to locate the most suitable resumes with the appropriate set of skills and experiences. This simplifies the hiring process as the employers no longer need to go through every resume one by one.

Business Model of Job Search Apps

Job recruitment mobile apps can have either one of the following business models:

Business to Business (B2B)

With a B2B model, all recruitment services are offered to various corporate companies, from small start-ups to large-scale established organizations. Among the various services offered, the prominent ones include access to resume database, vacancy listing, SMS marketing, email marketing, etc.

Business to Consumer (B2C)

In a B2C model, the various job-related services, such as resume writing, recruiter reach, profile enhancement, and some premium jobs are offered to job-seeking candidates.

Monetization Strategies for Recruitment Portals & Job Search Apps

1. Membership packages

This is one of the most effective ways of monetizing a job portal app that results in recurring revenues. As an app owner, you can charge a monthly/annual membership fee for the following:

• Resume access (e.g. access to x number of resumes per month for a certain amount)
• Regular job listings (e.g. x number of job listings per month)
• Access to educational resources related to employee training, recruiting, etc.
• Access to a forum or a community where all like-minded employers can share effective tips and hacks for navigating through various job applications

2. Third-party advertising

Advertising is a popular and effective way of monetizing your app. The best alternative is direct ad sales. This is when a business relevant to your job portal pays you a certain amount of money for ad space upfront.

Apart from this, you can use Google AdSense to host ads on your mobile app. All you need to do is create an account and place the code on your site. Your revenue depends on the amount of traffic your site gets and the number of people who click on the ads. But make sure to not damage the aesthetics of your site by placing too many ads.

3. Featured listing

Another monetization technique is featuring the profile of certain employers on your homepage, in email newsletters to the job-seeking candidates, or on your blog. For this, you can charge a certain amount of money from employers.

When posting a listing, the employer can opt for various levels of featured news with different amounts of payment for each. For instance, you can offer the following options to the employers:

• Highlighted at the top of the list for 5 days
• Highlighted at the top of the list for 10 days
• Highlighted for thirty days, etc.

4. Job Events ticketing & booking

You can organize webinars with industry experts who assist the job seekers in their career enhancement. These sessions can be very fruitful for the vocational development of an individual.

The job seekers can purchase the tickets to the webinars on the job portal itself. This is another effective and interesting way of making money from your job recruitment app.

5. E-learning Subscription

This is another creative way of increasing your app revenue. You can offer various paid courses that focus on the professional development of job seekers. This can further legitimize your brand as the go-to resource for serious job-seeking candidates.

Make sure to partner with skilled and learned instructors who have adequate industry knowledge. You can even go one step further and offer digital certificates to the candidates that they can showcase on their job profiles.

General Features in a Job Search & Recruitment App

Job Seeker Panel

• Social Sign Up and Login
• Resume Management
• Profile Management
• Job Search filter based on experience, location, keyword search, salary expectations, etc.
• Hire Resume Writing Service
• Send Resume
• Video Resume Creation
• Schedule interviews via video conferencing
• Push notifications for Job Alerts
• Bookmark Jobs and Employers

Recruiter Panel

• Sign Up/ Login via email
• Job Creation/Posting/Editing
• Email prospects
• Filter Resumes and Download
• Send job Invites
• Payment for Subscription Plans
• Schedule interviews with job seekers via call, in-person or video conferencing

Admin Panel

• Manage Job Ads
• Manage Candidate Profiles
• Package Management
• Content Management System
• Recruiter/Employer Profile Management
• Invitations
• Role Management
• Job Seeker and Employer Data Reports
• Generate Reports for earnings

Advanced Features of a Job Recruitment Mobile App

Robust Backend Solutions

The most important aspect of a powerful job recruitment mobile app is a responsive database that stores all the details of every job seeker. So to seamlessly manage this database, having a robust backend is a must. This will also facilitate faultless front-end operations.

Document Scanner

This is an important feature that helps the candidates to scan all their documents using an in-built scanner. They can easily scan their mark sheets, ID proofs, certificates, salary slips, etc. to add them to their profile.

In app-chat/message

This feature can help to facilitate seamless interaction between the job seekers and the recruiters. The two can share the necessary details and even schedule an interview to move ahead in the recruitment process.

CV Creation

CV is the most vital part of a job application. It is important to offer different ways of adding a CV to the job applicant’s profile, for instance, uploading directly from the system, importing from other sources, or building one within the portal itself.

Video Conferencing Interview

This helps the employers to take the recruitment process to the next stage. They can easily schedule a video call interview with the shortlisted candidates, especially those who cannot come for a face-to-face interview.

Ticketing & Booking

This feature enables the app users, both job seekers and recruiters, to make bookings to any event or webinar happening on the portal. They can also generate e-tickets to the event for a smooth experience.

eLearning lessons

In order to enhance one’s career profile, job seekers can opt for different eLearning courses listed on the job portal. Upon the successful completion of these courses, the candidates will receive a digital certificate that they can easily add to their resume. This helps to add value to the resume as well as increase visibility to the top recruiters.

Document Management Module

This is an important feature that enables the job-seeking candidates as well as employers to store, create, manage, or index digital documents. These documents can be stored securely on the portal and accessed from any place when required.

CRM Integration

Customer Relationship Management is a crucial aspect of a job portal. By integrating a robust CRM, it gets easier to manage customer preferences and offer them jobs accordingly. Besides, a CRM also helps to handle newsletter management, customer data & collection, marketing & analytics, and much more.

CMS Integration

A CMS helps to manage and modify every single piece of the content that is available on the platform. It can be used to manage the blog, job posting descriptions, candidate resume, etc. on the portal.

ERP Integration

An ERP solution for a recruitment and job search app helps in decreasing the overall work and thus reducing the cost of backend management. Also, helps in better analysis of large amounts of data at a single place.

Real-time Analytics

This feature enables the admin to extract real-time information on things like total jobs assigned, a number of employers linked, the number of job offers listed on the app, etc.

Role-Based Dashboards

A custom dashboard is required for various roles such as job seeker, job providers, consultancies, and admin dashboard to perform various tasks.

Cloud Environment

Having a cloud environment for your job recruitment app is the best way to manage the data in a protected manner. All the user data, recruiter data, resume, etc. are stored on the cloud so that they can be quickly accessed from any time, anywhere. This promotes hassle-free workflow management. Also, a job portal app integrated with a cloud environment becomes much more robust and scalable.

Payment Integration

A good job portal combines multiple payment gateways for the convenience of the users. You can offer popular payment methods like net banking, credit & debit cards, mobile wallets, UPI, etc. to make the payment process hassle-free for all users.

Steps to Develop a Job Search App

Building a job portal app involves various stages, from planning, designing, and development to launch. 

Below are the stages you should follow to develop an online job search app. 

1. Market Research and Conceptualization

Conduct thorough research and conceptualize your idea. Market research may include understanding the target audience, finding selling points, analyzing the competitors, and assessing the latest demands. 

2. Define App’s Features and Objectives

Based on your research, now define the goals of your app and the features you want to include. 

3. Choose a Suitable Technology Stack

Select a technology stack, including programming language, tool, and framework, to meet the project needs of your app. Also, decide on which platform you want to develop your app. 

4. Wireframing and Prototyping  

The best way to see your app’s layout and user interface is wireframes and prototyping. This step helps improve your app by offering the right direction for your app’s design and functionality. 

5. User Interface and Design

Ensure the online job portal app you develop is visually appealing and intuitive. Choose the best typography, color schemes, and interface. Make it responsive and user-friendly to let users easily use it on varied devices. 

6. Development

Build the app, including the required features and functionality. Create the databases, servers, and APIs needed to run the app. 

7. QA and Testing

Perform rigorous testing to identify any issues or bugs. Test the app’s functionality, security, and performance. 

8. Deployment & Launch

Time to launch your app. Deploy the app on the platform for which you have developed your job portal app. 

9. Ongoing Maintenance and Updates

Update your app according to the latest technologies and trends and improve it if required. This will keep your app running successfully.

Required Tech Stack for Job Search App Development

• Front-End Developer: Java, Swift, Angular, Java, CSS, HTML, React
• Platforms: Android, iOS, Web Application
• Back-End Developers: Python, Laravel, Node.js
• Push notifications, SMS and In-App Messaging: Batch
• Payment Processing: PayPal API, Stripe API, and Braintree SDK
• Database: MongoDB
• Cloud Environment: Google Cloud, AWS
• Social login: Facebook, Google, Twitter APIs

Required Team Structure for Recruitment & Job Search App Development

Developing a customized job portal app is a daunting task that requires the right set of professionals with exceptional expertise. Thus, it is important to get in touch with a reputed mobile app development agency that employs a team of intellectual technicians that focus on providing you with an on-time and goal-based delivery.

The required team structure for a job recruitment mobile app is as follows:

• Project Manager
• UI/UX Designers
• Android and iOS App Developers
• Backend Developers
• Testers and QA Professionals

How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Job Recruitment Mobile App?

Defining the basic cost of developing a mobile app is a tedious process. Even an app developer may not be able to give you a precise cost figure in the beginning as the prices vary with the number of features integrated. Also, the process of app development is a lengthy and complicated procedure that involves taking into account multiple factors.

Most of the app development companies charge money on an hourly basis. The number of hours taken depends upon the complexity level of the app. As per the prevailing standards, a mobile app for job search and recruitment can cost between $45 and $65 per hour. This amounts to roughly $50,000 to $60,000 for developing a simple job portal app. The aforementioned price also includes the UI/IX designing and testing of the mobile app.

Now, it must be noted that the cost of app development also depends on the physical location of the app development company. For instance, a US-based company charges around $50 to $250 per hour which immensely increases the overall cost. Similarly, in Europe and other nearby regions, the development charges vary from $45 to $170 per hour.

If we talk about India, one can easily find skilled app developers offering exceptional services at much more affordable prices. Most reputed app development companies in India don’t charge more than $25 to $45 per hour. This significantly reduces the overall cost of development. Here, you can easily build a feature-packed, smart job search mobile app for around $10,000 to $25,000.

Wrapping Up

The growing need for finding the right job has led to a rise in the number of mobile recruitment apps available out there. Thus, there can be a significant hike in the price of development in impending times. So, it is best to get in touch with a reputed mobile app development company right now to turn your business ideas and concepts into a reality.

Also, to ensure that your venture is efficient and profitable, you must add some unique features that are not available in the previous app versions. This will provide you with a much-needed winning edge.