What are job boards?

• Typically feature job listings submitted by employers and recruiters.
• Often specialize by industry, location or career type.
• Companies often use multiple job boards to increase their recruitment reach.

There are thousands of online job boards that feature open positions for candidates to consider. Some focus on jobs in a particular industry (e.g., advertising, government, tech) or cater to a certain talent pool, while others specialize in connecting people to jobs in certain geographical locations. The common attribute of job boards is that they allow employers to advertise their jobs to people who likely have the skills and qualifications they’re looking for. Often, companies will post the same position on multiple relevant job boards to increase the odds of finding qualified candidates.

For example, professional associations, universities and colleges often have dedicated online job boards where you can advertise your open roles to a specific type of candidate with the skills and education you’re looking for. Your local chamber of commerce website may also have a job board you can use to hire talent in your area.

We’ve put together lists of job boards for different industries and locations to help you hire employees:

• ​​10 Healthcare Job Boards for Employers
• 5 Construction Job Boards for Employers
• 8 Trucking Job Boards for Employers
• 10 Marketing Job Boards for Employers
• 8 Tech Industry Job Boards for Employers
• 10 Nurse Job Boards for Employers
• 10 Writer Job Boards for Employers
• 8 Denver Job Boards for Employers
• 10 NYC Job Boards for Employers
• 5 Nonprofit Job Boards for Employers
• 10 Creative Jobs Boards for Employers

Job search engines vs. job boards

Job boards are typically more focused on a particular industry, location or job type (e.g., freelance, contract, remote), while job search engines like Indeed aggregate a wide range of job listings from thousands of online sources. That’s why job search engines are also known as job aggregators.

Here are some other key differences between job search engines and job boards:

• Employers typically post jobs directly to job boards, while job search engines index jobs from multiple online sources, including various online job boards and employer career websites.
• Job boards typically reach fewer candidates than job search engines like Indeed because the number of candidates visiting individual job boards is often smaller. In fact, Indeed has 595M Job Seeker Profiles.¹
• The costs of posting to multiple job boards can add up quickly. However, you can post a job on Indeed for free* and choose to upgrade your post later on to get more visibility and unlock additional hiring features.

Posting your open roles on individual job boards can be a good strategy if you’re looking to fill highly specialized or niche positions. However, it can take more time to post your jobs on multiple job boards, and it can be difficult to track applications when they’re coming in from several sources. Posting your job on a job search engine like Indeed can be an excellent way to reach more qualified candidates with less work.

*Terms, conditions, quality standards and usage limits apply

Is Indeed a job board?

• Indeed is more than a job board—it’s a matching and hiring platform with powerful tools to help employers find exactly the kinds of candidates they’re looking for. Employers can post jobs directly on Indeed for additional features.
• Indeed aggregates job listings from thousands of job boards, career sites and recruiter listings.
• Indeed helps employers find the right candidates out of a broad talent pool.
• On Indeed, search results include both aggregated listings and those posted directly by employers.

Indeed functions as a matching and hiring platform that aggregates job listings from thousands of sources across the internet, including job boards, company career sites, local news sites, staffing agencies and recruiter listings. Since Indeed collects job listings from such a wide range of sources — including various online job boards — Indeed delivers 47% of all hires in the US.²

A job you’ve posted on your career website or applicant tracking system may be listed on Indeed through our aggregation technology if (1) you request it and (2) it meets the following criteria:

• Effective job description (see our article about writing effective job descriptions)
• Clear path for users to apply (email address, link to an online job description, etc.)
• Location of the job
• Complete job title
• Unique, valid URLs per job post

Learn more about Indeed’s aggregation technology here. Note: All jobs and websites are subject to review by Indeed’s Aggregation and Search Quality teams before being posted.

In addition to aggregating job listings from other sources, Indeed also allows employers to post their jobs directly to the site, similar to job boards. Many small and medium sized businesses post jobs to Indeed rather than maintaining their own career sites, but companies of all sizes use this self-serve recruitment tool.

Jobs posted directly to Indeed are managed through an online employer dashboard and can be easily browsed and applied to from mobile devices, making it easy for candidates to apply even if a computer isn’t accessible.

How Indeed stacks up agains the competition

This consolidation of job listings both eliminates the need for companies to post jobs in multiple locations and streamlines the search process for job seekers. Not only does Indeed allow you to post your jobs, but it also gives you the tools to screen and interview candidates and make job offers — all in one place.

The result? Indeed and sister company Glassdoor reach the vast majority of US online job seekers.³ 

Not only that, but Indeed gets 5.8X more visitors than ZipRecruiter, 16X more visitors than Monster and 13.3X more visitors than CareerBuilder.⁴

¹Indeed data (worldwide), job seeker accounts that have a unique, verified email address

²TalentNest 2019 Applicant Analysis

³Comscore Plan Metrix Multi-Platform, 18+ Job Search Audience, May 2022, Reach Indeed 92.9%, Glassdoor 11.1%

⁴Comscore, Unique Visitors, [June 2023]