I’m not surprised by what you are saying at all. Many grads don’t fully understand the world of online or offline recruitment (it seems to improve once they are at work with more experienced people looking to move on to their second job) and the careers services in general appear not to be that well up on it either. It isn’t a question of lazy youth. As the parent of a newly fledged grad and having set up the mygraduatecareer.com website (all the resources for grads online in one place), I can assure you that the transition from the Facebook world of social networking to the LinkedIn world of career networking is not an easy one for them. As confident and clever as they often are, I never cease to be amazed at how lacking in real confidence many under 21′s are when it comes to breaking into the world of work. Career development isn’t a compulsory part of the curriculum even though it’s a competency for life that they need to learn.

Certainly warming from an agency perspective to see that it is still a channel that is seen as relevant, though I say this without a hint of complacency. The traditional recruiter is already on the way out (not sure this is any bad thing) but those staying in the race will need to sharpen up and look for new ways of building strong and relevant relationships with candidates and clients alike.

I agree that multiple (or at least a few) routes to market can live in harmony as you go on to suggest, but woe betide any recruiter who thinks they have a built in meal ticket at this ever changing table. I think if we take a snapshot of a similar survey in 12 months time then the shift towards on line and social will have continued to have grown share.

I recently ran a recruitment campaign for a well know food company in the UK, which consisted of an integrated mix of on line, social and press. Most applications were via on line and all roles filled were as a result of applicants who came through this channel. Interestingly, the poorest applications came via print media.