JobsInTheUS.com is nearly doubling its staff with 22 new positions and adding over 8,000 square feet of office space in the Dana Warp Mill.
The additions come as part of a planned expansion of the company into new markets in New England and beyond.
JobsInTheUS.com operates state-specific job Internet sites that specialize in coupling local employers with local job seekers. The company operates some of the fastest-growing job Internet sites in New England – JobsInME.com, JobsInNH.com, JobsInVT.com, and JobsInRI.com.
According to company press representative Dan Erickson, the new hiring is part of a goal to “expand (the company’s) footprint into new states, beginning with Connecticut and parts of New York,” while keeping the base of operations here in Westbrook. “We have aggressive plans to keep growing,” said Erickson. “We have a lot of plans, and we’ve purchased URLs for every state. We’re renovating (the fourth floor of the Dana Warp Mill) right now and hope to have people in there at the end of March.”
“We’re looking at states where our parent company (Journal Register Company) has newspapers – New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan,” said company president Matt Hoffner. “We’ll probably move there first. We’re just going to keep on going.”
Hoffner said if the company develops sites all across the country, “at that point we’ll have the entire Dana Warp Mill.” But Hoffner has no plans for moving the company from Westbrook or from the Mill. “It’s a good space for us,” said Hoffner.
“This is another good example of incubation at the Dana Warp Mill,” said Westbrook Director of Economic Development Erik Carson. “This expansion not only is great for JobsInTheUS.com but also is beneficial for the city. We have watched this Internet company grow, and their success has been amazing. It’s great to see an innovative idea grow in such a short time, and we look forward to working with them to help them continue their expansion.”
“The Internet has become a powerful resource for job seekers and employers,” said Maine Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman. “We are pleased that a Maine company is helping improve not only the strategies people use to find jobs but also how businesses recruit workers, not to mention the added benefit of the company’s growth as a result of their success.”
Currently, according to JobsInTheUS.com, JobsInME.com receives more than 300,000 unique visits monthly. As of press time, the site had almost 3,200 jobs listed. As a contrast, Monster.com had fewer than 800 listed in the state of Maine.
According to Hoffner, the two sites target different companies and job seekers. Hoffner said his Web site targets locally as opposed to nationally, like Monster.com. He said almost 20 percent of the jobs listed on Monster.com are usually “fake” jobs – jobs advertising work at home for a nominal fee – or jobs that are really in a different geographic region. By contrast, the JobsInTheUS.com sites offer only “real” jobs for the local area being searched.
In 2004, JobsInME.com was listed as one of the best Internet job sites in the country with a user’s choice award from WEDDLE’s, an online research and publishing firm specializing in the employment-related area of the Internet. WEDDLE’s has been cited in such publications as Money, Fortune, and Inc. magazines and is considered to be the “Zagat” of the online employment industry by the American Staffing Association.
In the beginning of December, JobsInTheUS.com was purchased by the Journal Register Company based in Trenton, N.J. The Journal Register Company is a publicly traded company (NYSE: JRC) that owns 27 daily newspapers, 338 non-daily publications, and 206 Web sites.
Hoffner said that JobsInTheUS.com intends to do an additional hiring later in the year. “I’m excited by the news,” said Westbrook City Council President Brendan Rielly. “We need to do everything we can to encourage new, quality jobs in Westbrook.”
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