Fascinating article in The Wall Street Journal examining  analysis done by Jobs2web on how people were hired in 2010:

About a quarter of hires came from the large job boards. Recruiters go through 219 resumes for every job, 5.5 people receive an interview and one person is hired (.045%). Additionally, for every 116 applications on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites, there was one hire (.086%). You nearly double your chances of success by focusing on social media as opposed to the large job boards but it is still less than 1%.

The more effective ways to get hired:

For every 33 applications through a company website, one person is hired (3%)

For every 32 applications conducted through an internet search (i.e. “Tax Accountant NYC Job Openings”), one person is hired (3.1%)

And finally recruiters make one hire for every 10 referrals they receive through networking (10%). A more than 20 times more effective way of getting hired than applying through a large job board.

What can we learn from all of this? Stop focusing the majority of your time doing what everyone else is doing (applying on major job boards and social media sites for a less than 1% response rate). Focus your energies on finding appropriate company websites, targeted google searches and especially networking.