After opening up on-platform job listings to North American businesses last year, Facebook's now expanding the ability to apply to jobs directly on Facebook to more than 40 additional countries.

And while Facebook’s job listings seem like an immediate push into LinkedIn’s territory, Facebook’s focus is actually a little different, with The Social Network looking to help local businesses connect with potential candidates who are already active on the platform.

As explained by Facebook:

“Local businesses strengthen our communities and create more than 60% of new jobs. In an online poll of 5,000 adults conducted by Morning Consult, one in four people in the US said they searched for, or found a job using Facebook.”

Indeed, the benefits of advertising an open position on Facebook could be hard to ignore – The Social Network is the most used social platform in the world, with more than two billion monthly active users. While LinkedIn is more aimed at white collar professionals - a more career-minded market - Facebook’s aiming for the gap in between, businesses looking for casual, local people who may have more specialized knowledge which might not necessarily fit on a LinkedIn-style resume.

Facebook highlights this in their examples of how brands have been using Facebook job ads thus far:

• Troy, the owner of Striper Sniper Tackle in North Carolina had trouble finding people with the specific skills he needed until he posted the job on his Facebook Page. He received 27 applications immediately, and hired 10 people.
• Ben, operations manager at Sky Zone, an indoor trampoline park in Illinois, received more than 200 applications, and filled 11 positions in one week. “We had more of the right type of candidate apply through Facebook… It was also much easier to look through applications on Facebook, and I think it was easier for candidates to complete job postings,” he said.
• Michelle and Eddie, owners of two Edible Arrangements stores in North Carolina, received 97 applications and were able to fill seven open positions in three weeks using Facebook, spending only $20 USD to boost the post in News Feed.

These aren’t necessarily the types of jobs you’d expect to see listed on LinkedIn, but they still need to be filled – and the best candidates for them are very likely active on Facebook. And with the ability to boost your job ads, and target them at very specific audiences, there’s definitely a lot of appeal to Facebook’s offering.

To help provide more context on how the Facebook jobs process works, The Social Network has included two videos – one for job seekers and one for businesses – illustrating the process.

For job seekers, there are various options for finding open positions – you can check out the dedicated ‘Jobs’ listing in the Explore section, visit the 'Jobs' section of the respective business, or you may be served a promoted job ad, if you fit the profile of people the company is after.

When you apply for a position, your application is auto-filled with the relevant information from your Facebook profile, streamlining the process (you can edit the information before sending and the job advertiser can only see publicly posted data on your profile). You're also then connected with the business via Messenger to confirm your application status.

For businesses, creating, posting and keeping track of the various applications is fairly simple – as demonstrated in this video.

As explained by Facebook:

“Job posts will appear in multiple places on Facebook, including on a business’ Page, in the Jobs dashboard, in Marketplace, and in News Feed. Job posts can appear in News Feed similar to other Page posts, and businesses can choose to boost posts to reach the right candidates. Businesses can also manage their applications and communicate with applicants, including scheduling interviews and sending automated reminders, directly through Messenger.”

As we’ve noted previously, job ads may not seem like an immediate fit for Facebook, but with most businesses now maintaining a Facebook presence – and most people active, in some capacity, on the platform – it makes sense for Facebook to utilize their network and insights to connect users with potential opportunities.

Facebook’s been testing their potential capacity in this regard for some time – back in 2016, Facebook's research team published two studies which both pointed to them using the Facebook graph for career insights, one looking at who's more beneficial in helping you find a job (a close friend or an acquaintance), and another which looked at how jobs run in families (whether people's choice of profession is influenced by what their parents or siblings do).

Given the amount of data Facebook has, there’s clearly opportunity for them to build effective job services into their platform, and the focus on helping local businesses, specifically, aligns with Facebook’s broader mission to strengthen civic engagement and community inclusion.

With the broader expansion of their job ad options, it’ll be interesting to see how businesses utilize Facebook’s tools, and whether it becomes more of a destination for such efforts moving forward.