by Christo Volschenk
Yesterday Monster Worldwide lowered its projections for 1Q revenue and earnings and announced cost-saving measures, including the lay-off of about 400 employees worldwide (about 100 of them in the U.S.). Monster Worldwide CEO Sal Iannuzzi told Reuters the job market is unlikely to change “for the time being”. In response, the share price took a heavy knock (read our report here).  

The company doesn’t report the financial results of regions (for instance Europe and Asia) separately. Inquiries at dr. Katrin Luzar, senior public relations manager of Monster in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, drew a flat “no comment”. And listed companies such as Axel Springer (with job portal Stepstone) do not (yet) report the performances of individual platforms separately.

So, it’s difficult to figure out just how healthy (or unhealthy) the finances of European job portals are, and what role Europe plays in Monster’s slowdown. Chances are, quite a big role.

That is, if one looks at Monster’s monthly statistics for ad listings on job portals in seven of Europe’s biggest labor markets, namely Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and the U.K.. The so-called Monster Index has been sending out warning signals for some time now – as we first reported in October last year (look here). In the October article we suggested job portals everywhere in Europe (except Germany) might be heading for stormy times.

The Monster Index is published monthly (look here). It tracks the number of jobs listed on a number of portals (they don’t divulge exactly which job portals) in the abovementioned countries. It is the most reliable early indicator we have of what is happening in job markets and – important for this story – what lies ahead financially for job portals.

The index shows that job portals have been suffering under declining job ad listings since April last year (in the case of Belgium), May last year (in the cases of The Netherlands and Sweden), June last year (in the case of France) and July (in the case of Italy).

For some countries last year ended in a real nightmare. In Spain, for instance, (not included in the Monster Index), the official unemployment rate was measured at 22 percent in December, with unemployment among young people said to be over 30 percent. Greece and Portugal (also not included in the Monster Index), faced similar rates.

The Monster Index includes Italy, Belgium and The Netherlands and there ad listings dropped by 7 percent, 8 percent and 7 percent respectively last year.

Only two countries in the EU did not suffer drops in their ad listings (as measured by Monster) throughout last year (they ended the year with more jobs listed than in January), namely Germany and the U.K.

In December 2011 Germany had 32 percent more jobs listed than in December 2010 – an amazing statistic, remembering that Germany didn’t lose jobs during the crisis of 2008 – 2010. The U.K. boasted 6 percent more jobs in December 2011 than the same month a year earlier.

In the circumstances, one doesn’t really need dr. Luzar – the message is clear: Europe’s job portals (excluding Germany) suffered last year and are facing a bumpy road in 2012. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland Monster might not be cutting jobs (she didn’t want to comment that one either), but chances are elsewhere in Europe.