Does LinkedIn offer free job posting?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million members worldwide. It is a great platform for companies and recruiters looking to find qualified candidates for open positions. One of the key features of LinkedIn is the ability for companies to post and promote job listings directly on the platform. However, LinkedIn does not offer completely free job posting capabilities. There are different paid job posting options available to fit various recruiting needs and budgets. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at LinkedIn’s current job posting options, pricing, and value to determine if LinkedIn offers any free job posting capabilities for recruiters and employers.

What are LinkedIn’s current job posting options?

LinkedIn offers three main paid tiers of job posting and distribution capabilities for employers and recruiters:

• LinkedIn Job Slots
• LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
• LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate

Job Slots allow you to post individual job openings on LinkedIn and are best for one-off postings. Recruiter Lite and Recruiter Corporate provide access to additional tools and insights along with bundled job posting credits each month. Here is an overview of each option:

LinkedIn Job Slots

With LinkedIn Job Slots, you prepay for individual job postings that can be posted at any time for a 30 day duration. Job slots allow you to:

• Post 1 individual job to LinkedIn for 30 days
• Promote with LinkedIn’s algorithmic distribution to match open roles with qualified members
• Get basic applicant tracking and management capabilities

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite provides a monthly subscription with a bundled number of job postings along with added capabilities over Job Slots including:

• 30 days of unlimited job postings
• Unlimited applicant tracking and pipeline management
• Access to LinkedIn’s full database of over 722 million members
• Access to advanced search filters and screening questions
• Post jobs automatically to 20+ free job boards

LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate

LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate provides enterprise-level recruiting capabilities with customizable plans including:

• Unlimited job postings
• Advanced analytics and insights on jobs and candidates
• Custom integration capabilities
• Premium candidate management and communication tools
• Dedicated account management

So in summary, LinkedIn provides several paid monthly subscription plans for recruiters that bundle job postings along with software tools to manage the recruiting workflow. Job Slots allow for one-off job posting purchases.

What is the pricing for LinkedIn’s job posting options?

Here is an overview of LinkedIn’s current pricing for their main three job posting options:

LinkedIn Job Slots Pricing

• 1 Job Slot: $199 per post
• 3 Job Slot Pack: $495 total ($165 per post)
• 5 Job Slot Pack: $745 total ($149 per post)
• 10 Job Slot Pack: $1,395 total ($139.50 per post)

Volume discounts are available for larger Job Slot purchases.

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite Pricing

• $959/month base price for annual subscription
• 30 days of unlimited job posting included
• Additional job posting credits can be added for $129/credit

LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate Pricing

LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate is customized based on each company’s recruiting needs. Pricing is not publicly listed but reports show it typically starts around $8,000/month. Volume discounts are available.

So in general, LinkedIn job posting options range from $129 per post up to several thousand dollars per month for enterprise recruiting solutions. Larger volume purchases can reduce the per-post cost significantly.

Does LinkedIn offer any free job posting options?

Unfortunately LinkedIn does not currently offer any completely free job posting capabilities or credits. All job postings must be purchased either as one-off Job Slots or through a monthly Recruiter Lite or Recruiter Corporate subscription.

However, there are a few limited options LinkedIn provides at no cost to encourage recruiters and employers to utilize their platform:

Company Pages

All companies can create a free Company Page on LinkedIn. This functions similar to a Facebook business page where you can promote your company, post content, and interact with followers. On your Company Page, you can add an “Open to Work” banner for free that will promote you are hiring. However, this banner is very basic and does not allow for targeting specific roles, locations, or details like a true job post.

School Pages

Similarly, University Pages on LinkedIn are free and allow a simple “We’re Hiring” banner to promote open roles at educational institutions. But again, this only provides very basic promotion of open positions.

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups organized by industry, location, interests, etc provide a space for members to discuss topics and post content. As a group manager or member, you can share job openings within relevant groups for free as posts or discussions. This can help reach engaged audiences open to job opportunities. However, it lacks the depth of a true job post.

Ad-hoc postings

Any member can make ad-hoc posts on their own profile or company pages related to hiring or job openings. You are limited in how you can target or promote these posts, but it’s possible to organically reach part of your network for free.

So in summary – while LinkedIn does not offer any true free job posting capabilities, there are a few basic options to promote openings or interest in hiring at no cost on Company and Group pages. However, these have significant limitations vs paid job posts.

What is the value of LinkedIn job posting options?

Despite the lack of free posting, LinkedIn’s paid job posting options provide extensive value through:

Unmatched talent reach

With over 722 million professionals, LinkedIn provides access to the world’s largest group of qualified, engaged candidates. Paid job posts leverage algorithmic distribution to precisely target relevant candidates based on experience, skills, education, and other attributes.

Quality applicant conversion

LinkedIn members are actively looking for new jobs and open to opportunities. A study by LinkedIn found that LinkedIn messages have 2x the response rate of email messages. And job posts outperform traditional job boards in key metrics like click-through rate and applicant quality and conversion.

Software integration and workflow

LinkedIn’s Recruiter platforms integrate directly with your ATS to provide unified management of job posts, applicants, and hiring workflow. This creates efficiency and eliminates toggling between software tools.

Analytics and reporting

LinkedIn Recruiter options provide valuable analytics on job posting performance, applicant sources, hiring metrics, and other insights to optimize your strategy.

In summary, the investment required for LinkedIn job posting unlocks huge applicant reach, higher performance in converting candidates, and powerful software tools to streamline hiring.

Conclusion

While LinkedIn does not provide completely free job posting capabilities, the extensive value of its paid options generally makes the investment worthwhile for most recruiters and companies. Key benefits like unrivaled reach, quality candidate conversion, and streamlined workflow justify the fees required for job posting on LinkedIn in most cases.

For companies focused on ultra-tight budgets and unwilling to pay for posting, the free workaround options like Company Page banners or Group posts can be explored. However, these offer very limited promotion and targeting of open roles vs true job posts.

In the world of recruiting and talent acquisition, LinkedIn’s job boards remain a top choice to source, engage, and hire qualified candidates. And despite no free postings, the results possible from LinkedIn’s paid job listing plans make them a worthwhile investment for serious hiring needs at most organizations.