Facebook (FB) is already a big threat to Twitter (TWTR), and now, it is posing tough competition for LinkedIn (LNKD) – the leading network for employers and employees. On Monday, the social networking giant said it is testing a feature that will allow page administrators to create job postings and receive applications from interested candidates. TechCrunch was the first to report the news on Monday.

Photo by geralt (Pixabay)

How the feature works

A company spokesman told Reuters, “Based on behavior we’ve seen on Facebook, where many small businesses post about their job openings on their Page, we’re running a test for Page admins to create job postings and receive applications from candidates.”

The status update composer now has a new Facebook option that allows Pages to formally share a job opening with related details like job title, salary or the nature of the job (full-time or part-time). Since the News Feed is already so crowded, job postings will have a special formatting to help differentiate them from other content and attract eyeballs, notes TechCrunch.

These job postings will appear in the Jobs tab of the Page, a dedicated landing place where companies can send job seekers. There will also be an “Apply Now” button in the job postings. It will be pre-populated with information from a user’s public profile, helping a user quickly apply for multiple jobs without wasting time entering redundant information.

Last year, Facebook tested Profile Tags that mimic LinkedIn’s endorsements feature, and it seems Facebook was prepping for these new features then.

Facebook now going after LinkedIn

It can surely be seen as a big blow to LinkedIn (LNKD). Most of the revenue that LinkedIn generates comes from job hunters and recruiters who are required to make payments on a monthly basis to be able to post resumes and connect with people on the network.

TechCrunch noted that Facebook’s jobs feature will make it possible for companies to drive more traffic to their Facebook pages. At the same time, it will allow them to pay the social network to get their job openings in front of a larger number of candidates.

This isn’t the first time that Facebook has made a new endeavor in a sector that has one dominant company. In October, it launched a new feature called Marketplace that allowed people to buy and sell items locally. This was part of Facebook’s effort to keep users engaged. More recently, it launched Gameroom, a PC gaming platform that takes aim at Steam.