ZipRecruiter, the online job marketplace, is benefiting from the hiring crisis

Look no further, Rachel Green. ZipRecruiter, the online job marketplace, will take it from here.

Zip’s stock price shot up over 23% since going public in May – but the company really earned everyone’s attention after releasing skyrocketing sales numbers in its earnings report.

Quick returns after a slow recovery

Unemployment rates skyrocketed to nearly 15% last April when the pandemic forced employers to cut costs. However, even with the threat of the delta variant looming large, the job market continued to improve through the summer:

• The unemployment rate fell to 5.4% in July, the lowest since the pandemic.
• 943k jobs were added in the US in July, the most in 11 months.

The rate would be even lower if workers could be found to fill current positions. 48% of small businesses reported difficulties filling roles – thanks to employees’ newfound desire for remote work.

Enter ZipRecruiter – which has connected over 2.8m businesses and 110m job seekers to date. And with the online recruitment market expected to grow 7.1% annually, ZipRecruiter is in a prime position to expand on its 3.25% market share.

Zipping past sales estimates

Analysts are high on ZipRecruiter – with Barclay’s analyst raising their price target on the company to $38 (46% upside) after the company released their better than expected earnings report last week.

• $183m in sales – up 109% from the same period last year.
• $52.8m in net losses – compared to $21.3m in net income the year before.

The company’s sales beat estimates by over $22m, and similar sales numbers are expected for the third quarter of 2021 – but all that growth came at a price. After a profitable 2020, Zip turned to a loss in 2021 due to increased marketing and one-off expenses related to going public.

Investors: Buy the freelancing dip?

After Microsoft bought Linkedin in 2016, Ziprecruiter is now one of the only public job marketplaces left. But investors playing the hiring game can look towards gig (contract workers) marketplaces:

• Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK), a freelance services marketplace, is up over 175% in the past year.
• Fiverr (NYSE:FVRR), another marketplace for freelancers, is up ~50% in the past year.

Employers having trouble filling in full-time roles could turn to contract work. This way, the excess demand would benefit these platforms in the long run.

Gig marketplaces are also looking cheaper after Fiverr fell nearly 50% since February as investors rotated out of COVID-favored stocks.