[4hEn]

> I do not see how anyone could make money unless they play ball with the big companies

One way is to play ball with the candidates. A big casualty of the job search is the candidate because they deplete their savings while looking for a job. Companies on the other hand can afford to not spend the money on a hire, or delay hiring, or put job postings that aren't really hiring to keep up pretenses or as marketing or feel they're not losing anything. The candidate doesn't have a concentrated force to counteract this.

If candidates wised up it could get interesting. A web app that is the other half of LinkedIn could be there waiting to be discovered.

[thaeli]

The concentrated force for candidates to counteract this would be an industy-wide union. Which isn't happening.. but if you look at unionized industries this is one of the major benefits for candidates, or at least for candidates who make it into the union..

[4hEn]

> The concentrated force for candidates to counteract this would be an industy-wide union. Which isn't happening.

It's one force, not "the" force. As described in the other comment, having enough data about which employers are actually hiring could go a long way.