In October 2009 the U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 10%. Since then, it was slowly declining until last month (March) it fell by another 0.1% to 8.2%. But even though the economy is gradually recovering in baby steps, many Americans are still looking for jobs.

While one of the biggest challenges of both job seekers and recruiters was to find a proper platform to connect with each other, social networks established themselves as a great place for that purpose and in the last few years many employees have found their employers via social media channels.

I already discussed about this issue couple of times in the past- Back in November 2011, a research has revealed that about sixth of all employers managed to find their current job through social networking sites, where another study in February 2012 discovered that LinkedIn is the most effective social network for job recruiting.

Now, a nice new infographic generated by OnlineDegrees is combining these two studies alongside few others to show “the social job search”. The infographic can be found below and for those of you who likes a textual version, here’s the infographic’s transcript:

In 2012 companies are expected to use social media to recruit for over 80% of job openings.

Nearly all recruiters are using social media sites to find candidates: 33% through Facebook, 42% through Twitter and 98% through LinkedIn (94.5% hiring success rate through LinkedIn).

Roles recruiters need to fill: 36% non-managerial hourly employees, 39% executive or upper management roles, 77% other management roles and 82% non managerial salaried employees.

Top ways recruiters spend their time on social networks: 49% posting job opportunities and 58% sourcing applicants.

Why do employers use social media to recruit: 52% to target a specific set of skills, 54% to target a specific job level, 60% to increase the company’s brand recognition, 67% to save money and 84% to recruit candidates who might not apply otherwise.

How can you (job seeker) make yourself standout? Make good impression (studies are showing that people spend just 5.7 seconds looking at profiles) by improving the job title and profile picture.

Social networks ranks fourth with a rate of 7 (out of 10) as the best source for quality job candidates. Job boards (such as our job board) ranks eighth with a rate of 6.1.

Tune into Twitter: 19% of recruiters use Twitter alongside LinkedIn for recruiting. Twitter drives twice as many job views and three times more applications per job than Facebook.

Optimize your Twitter page: Use keywords in your bio, Tweet about your job search and promote yourself in Twitter background.

Here’s the infographic with full details: