WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Job hunters who are only using traditional methods in their quest for a new job are often finding themselves frustrated due to the lack of positive response. Searching through traditional methods alone can take hundreds of hours and produce a small response. The biggest challenge with traditional job search methods is that only a fraction of the jobs available are advertised.

Almost every job hunter is chasing these limited number of advertised job openings at the same time as everyone else. All this becomes quite frustrating. The employer is overwhelmed with all of the responses and the job hunter is lost in the shuffle. People looking for jobs start to feel desperate, frustrated, and even hopeless. When job seekers reach this point, they are ready to simply give up while others will try anything that offers a glimmer of hope.

In hard times, finding a job can take months of time and effort. But you can speed up the process by using online search tools to save time and organize your efforts. It's recommended that you use multiple methods to find job opportunities that you are interested in. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that people who use many job search methods find jobs faster than people who use only one or two.