ZipRecruiter, Inc.

everyone to zip recruiter and Q3 2024 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, see the press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Andrew Haraldson and Vestor Relations. Andrew?

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon. Thank you for joining us in our earnings conference call during which we will discuss zip recruiter performance for the quarter end of September 30th, 2024 and guidance for the fourth quarter 2024. Joining me on the call today are Ian Siegel, co-founder and CEO, David Travers, president, and Tim Yarbrough, CFO. Before we begin, please be reminded that forward-looking statements made today are subject to risks and uncertainties related to future events and or the future financial performance of zip recruiter. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. A discussion of some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements can be found in zip recruiter's quarterly report in form 10Q for the quarter end of September 30th, 2024, which is available in our investor website and the SEC's website. The forward-looking statements in this conference call are based on the current expectations as of today and zip recruiter assumes no obligation to update or revise them, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAP financial measures. These non-GAP financial measures should be considered in addition to not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAP results. Reconciliation with the non-GAP metrics or nearest GAP metrics are included in zip recruiter shareholder letter in our form 10Q. And now I will turn the call over to Ian.

Thank you and good afternoon to everyone joining us today. Zip recruiter continues to navigate a protracted labor market downturn. In Q3, 2024, revenue of 117.1 million was down 25% year over year. Net loss in Q3 was 2.6 million, while adjusted EBITDA was 15 million, equating to a net loss margin of negative 2% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13%. Notably, both revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the quarter came in above the high end of guidance. We continue to balance financial strengths with investing in strategic initiatives that we believe will drive a strong ROI, positioning zip recruiter for success with job seekers and employers alike. While there are many ways to measure market share in our industry, we have been acutely focused on winning share with job seekers via a superior job search experience. Our strategy around product and technology has proven effective. As zip recruiter has grown job seeker traffic year over year in Q3, at least 13 percentage points more than any of our largest competitors. Our multi-year investments in brand, advancements with Phil, our AI-driven career advisor, and focus on matching technology have all played a role in winning trust and loyalty with job seekers. We firmly believe that over time, revenue from employers will follow the market share shifts with job seeker activity. While each labor market cycle is distinct, by several measures, this is one of the more prolonged downturns in hiring activity. Easily adjusted hires have declined on a year over year basis every month since August of 2022, which is approaching the same duration in hiring declines as the recession of 2008. Further, the great stay continues with the currently employed leaving their jobs at the lowest rate since 2015, excluding the onset of the COVID pandemic. This persistent reduction in employee churn is further driving down hiring levels. While it is difficult to predict exactly when hiring activity will recover, we are confident in the long-term health of the US labor market and see the end of the great stay as a future tailwind. Despite the duration of the hiring decline, our operating philosophy of remaining nimble and responding to the macroeconomic environment while investing in our product and technology has proven effective during this period. We believe that when businesses resume hiring, they will experience a much improved marketplace with better tools and a greater supply of candidates to find a great fit for their job opening. Through labor market cycles, we remain intently focused on our mission of actively connecting people to their next great opportunity. With that, I will now turn the call over to Dave to review progress on our growth strategies. Dave.

Thank you, Ian, and good afternoon. Q3 was another strong quarter of execution toward building out each of our three strategic pillars. Our first strategic pillar is to increase the number of employers and the revenue per paid employer in our marketplace. Last quarter, we highlighted the initial rollout of Zip Intro. Zip Intro is essentially speed dating for hiring, where employers pick a time for an interview and then Zip Recruiter's smart matching technology brings them qualified job seekers to speak with back to back over video. Employers love Zip Intro's ability to accelerate -to-face connections for faster and more personal hiring experience. The results were exceptional, with over 90% of job seekers saying they're likely to use Zip Intro again and employers receiving over three times more quality applications per job utilizing Zip Intro. Zip Intro fully launched to all subscription customers in Q3 and the results continue to confirm the value this product generates for our marketplace. With Zip Intro, most employers received their first application in under 20 minutes and talked to a candidate the next day. This product has gained strong traction in the early stages with the full launch of Zip Intro seeing an over three X increase in adoption after the initial rollout. In Q3, we also launched our next generation resume database which helps employers find qualified candidates in minutes. The new resume database features cutting edge search and filtering capabilities, instant access to candidate contact info and fresh workflow management tools. After searching for the right candidates, employers can unlock the resumes and contact info of qualified candidates. In the first week of launch, we saw an over 20% increase in average weekly candidate profile unlocks compared to unlocks before the launch in 2024. Turning to our second pillar, increasing the number of job seekers in our marketplace. As Ian mentioned, we have been investing heavily into the job seeker experience, given our belief that market share shifts in job seeker activity will be followed by market share shifts in employer revenue dollars. Our gains this year for organic and total job seekers have continued. In Q3, total Zip recruiter web traffic as measured by similar web in the US grew by 21% year over year, which is at least 13% points more than any of our largest competitors. This includes organic job seeker traffic growth of 23%. We believe these gains have been a result of a multi-year investment in brand, product and technology. We create rich profiles for job seekers using resume data, information green by Phil, our AI based career advisor and other data they provide about their skills and backgrounds. More comprehensive and -to-date job seeker profiles make for better matches to jobs, creating value for both job seekers and employers. In Q3, we rolled out several product improvements that make it easier for job seekers to upload and review their resumes, add a photo, build out their profiles and ultimately present their best sales to employers. Notably, we've improved how we pull content from a job seeker's resume to populate their profile, an update that helps job seekers quickly populate their work history, education details and more. We believe that making it easier for job seekers to maintain and enhance their profile improves their job search experience. It also makes employer products like our next generation resume database more valuable for employers. I'll conclude with our third pillar, making our matching technology smarter over time. In Q3, we rolled out a meaningful improvement to the algorithm powering the email notifications we send job seekers that feature newly posted relevant jobs. These email notifications are highly effective at driving applications to a job shortly after the job is posted, making it more likely the applicant will be hired and delighting employers who aim to hire fast. We saw an increase in job seeker engagement as a result of the update, with clicks from the email notifications increasing by 100% and applications from those emails increasing by 120%. I'll now turn the call over to Tim to review financial results and guidance. Tim.

Thank you, Dave, and good afternoon, everyone. Our third quarter revenue of $117.1 million represents a 25% decline -by-year, primarily due to reduced demand from SMBs with continued uncertainty and volatility in the labor market. Quarterly paid employers were 65,000, representing a 27% decrease versus Q3-23 and a 7% decrease sequentially. The -by-year and -over-quarter decreases in quarterly paid employers are primarily reflective of reduced demand from SMBs and the continued uncertainty and volatility of the labor market. Revenue per paid employer was $1,795, up 3% -by-year and up 2% sequentially. The increases -by-year and -for-quarter are primarily due to the slight mixed shift from subscription revenue to performance revenue. Net loss was $2.6 million in Q3-24 compared to net income of $24.1 million in Q3-23 and net income of $7 million in Q2-24. Q3-24 adjusted EBITDA was $15 million, equating to a margin of 13% compared to $54.4 million, a margin of 35% in Q3-23, and $27.8 million with a margin of 23% in Q2-22. Net income and adjusted EBITDA decreases -by-year were driven by revenue declines, while the sequential decreases were driven by revenue declines and higher operating expenses. Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities was $498 million as of September 30th, 2024. Moving on to guidance, our Q4-24 revenue guidance of $107 million at the midpoint represents a 21% decline -over-year and a 9% decline -over-quarter. The -over-year decline represents the continuation of a prolonged labor market downturn, while the -over-quarter decline reflects our expectation of a seasonally softer Q4. Our adjusted EBITDA guidance for Q4-24 is $9 million at the midpoint, or an 8% adjusted EBITDA margin. On a sequential basis, this implies a slight decrease to operating expenses as we moderate marketing during a seasonally soft period. Our fourth quarter guidance implies a full year 2024 adjusted EBITDA margin of 16%. Within the expectations we outlined at the beginning of the year and leveling off adjusted EBITDA margins in the low to mid teens. As we finish 2024 and enter 2025, our operating philosophy remains unchanged. We remain nimble and are prepared to quickly adjust to a wide range of scenarios. While the labor market remains challenging and uncertain, ZipRecruiter maintains a healthy balance sheet and a flexible operating model. We are positioned well to continue investing in our strategic growth drivers and remain ready for recovery and hiring activity. With that, we can now open the line for questions. Operator?

We will now begin the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question at this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to return your question, press star one again. And your first question come from the line up, Ralph Shockhart with William Blair. Ralph, your line is now open.

Good afternoon, thanks for taking the questions. First question, just in terms of the verticals that you serve, maybe David, can you just give a highlight, any pockets of strength that you're saying and then the early cycle verticals that initially saw the softness, be it technology or anything else, anything you'd call out there, any color you could add on those early cycle verticals, then I would follow up.

Yep,

thanks,

Ralph. Yeah, so in terms of verticals, as has been the case for a long time, our business looks like the whole US economy, so we're not particularly concentrated in one sector in a way that isn't representative of the economy as a whole. But looking at verticals, healthcare, despite softness we saw, you know, remained fairly robust compared to other verticals and healthcare is a significant, obviously, chunk of the economy. So that was, you know, sort of the notable bright spot, I would say, you know, on the more negative side of things, we saw transportation, storage, travel and leisure being on the weaker side of the ledger, where we saw softer performance. And then in terms of those early verticals, you talked about finance and technology in particular, which is where we saw weakness at the very beginning of this particular downturn back in mid-22. You know, they were sort of in the middle, in between the bookends of healthcare being a little bit stronger and things like transportation and storage being on the weaker side.

Great, and just to follow up, sounds like SMBs continue to be cyclically challenged, but just if you could get an update on what you're seeing from your enterprise customers, thanks.

Yeah, so enterprise customers, you know, as evidenced by the fact that our percentage of revenue that comes from performance marketing, which is driven by enterprise customers, ticked up to 22% this quarter. Enterprise customers were a little bit more robust than SMBs were during the quarter. What we've seen there is a combination of good execution on our part, and also, you know, some hiring needs in particular areas like healthcare, as I mentioned, where, you know, areas like major medical centers continue to have structural shortages in things like nurses. In terms of what we're doing, I'm really pleased with the execution of our teams there and what has been a difficult environment for a couple years, but we're really optimistic that we've got a long way to go here. That 22% is still less than the 50% roughly of the market opportunity in the US that enterprises represent, and our optimism there remains very strong as we look at potential for further growth with enterprises. Great, thanks, Ed.

Your next question comes from the line of Josh Chan with UBS. Josh, your line is now open.

Hi, thank you. Good afternoon. I guess in your remarks, you mentioned the great stay. I was just wondering if there's any house view on what will cause it to end and how that would kind of unfold. I know it's open-ended question, but I appreciate any comment there.

Yeah, hey, thanks for the question. This is Ian. And we are definitely students of the labor market as we enter our 26 months in a row where hires have declined on a -over-year basis, and a substantial portion of that decline is coming from the fact that people are just fundamentally quitting at a much lower rate than they previously did. And in fact, that is what drives a substantial portion of the overall hiring in the US. If you go back to January of 2022, the quit rate was 3%, and if you look at the most recent month, it was under 2%. So it's falling by more than a third, and it seems like there are a combination of factors that are causing people to stay. A lot of people in the post-COVID rehiring when the economy was opening back up are benefiting now from either -of-market or even above-market salaries jobs that included a record number of perks, including things like bonuses and benefits. And then further, a lot of people got into homes at extremely low interest rates. And so we think there is going to be a natural period of time where, as the economy returns to more of a steady state normal, this is gonna work its way through the system, and hiring will resume. I would just say here that if you were to go back to 2001, or you were to go back to 2008, and you were to look at the pattern that came with those recessions, we are entering close to record territory in terms of the duration of this particular recession. And in every previous recession you look at, everybody starts to ask questions, like, has there been structural change? And what we believe internally, if you ask for a house view, is that the best bet over the long term is the health of the US labor economy, and that hiring will resume, and that we will see a more balanced normal in the future here.

That's really a helpful color. I really appreciate that, Ian.

Just to add onto that, the other thing I would say about the, this is Dave, the quits rate having dropped so much, is that people quitting is a huge portion of job-seeking activity. And so in that context, the growth we've seen with job seekers, both on an absolute basis, and the 13 percentage points of share gain, or relative outperformance of any of our large competitors, makes us feel even stronger about the strength of that performance, which we've been talking about for several quarters now.

That

makes sense. Thank you, Dave.

And then maybe I can follow up with a question about the Q4 guidance. Understand that every Q4, the labor market slows down a little bit seasonally. So I was just wondering in your mind, does that Q4 guide contemplate a typical amount of seasonal slowdown? Just wondering any color you could give there.

Thank you. Hey, Josh, this is Tim. Yeah, the Q4 guide takes into account two things. One would be a seasonal decline, and we would expect that decline primarily to be from SMBs. There'd be a more typical pattern, but also recognizing that the labor market still remains soft. And so it takes both of those dynamics into consideration.

Great. Thank you, Tim, and thanks everybody for your time. Good luck in Q4.

Your next question comes from the line of Doug Anmet with JP Morgan. Doug, your line is now open.

Hi, this is Maggie. How's my on for Doug? Thanks for taking the question. I was just wondering if there's any color you can provide around the timeline for the launch of Breakroom in the US, and then maybe just more broadly as you roll out new products and features sort of how we should think about the monetization opportunity there over time.

Thanks, Maggie. Yeah, so Breakroom, we continue to be very excited about. Obviously, we're a few months into the integration since we acquired them a few months ago over the summer. First of all, they're performing great in the UK. They're a young business, so it's not a material portion of our revenue at this point, but they're building both on the job seeker side, where we see strong growth in the UK, and on the employer side, where they're performing very well. And work is well underway to launch Breakroom in the US. So we already have several components of work that's been done, and look forward to updating you on that in 2025 as that launch comes together in the US.

This is Ian. I will just add on new products. We have multiple new products that have already been deployed. One is the new resume database. The other is the intro. And like many new products, now that they have hit the market and are meeting customers, we're getting really strong feedback from our customers about what they like about it, and we're also getting a number of feature requests. And I think this is a pattern that has played out with our business over and over again over the years, which is what we do in these situations is we try to maximize the value we're delivering, and then we are cognizant of the need to monetize that value that we are providing. But right now we are in the value maximization phase of it. And over the course of 2025, both those products will contribute revenue, but the magnitude of what they contribute is not going to be overly material to the full year results. However, we think it will be material to our customer satisfaction. And over time we expect them to be larger and larger contributors. And just part of an overall portfolio of innovations which we are bringing out, these are just the first of what should be many. So we are working towards really improving the experience on our site, particularly for job seekers and for employers. And once we have that value fully deployed, we are also very focused on acquiring and monetizing that value. So

that's it. Great, thank you so much.

Again, if you would like to ask a question, hit the press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And your next question comes from the line of Glenn Shell with Raymond James. Glenn, your line is now open.

Good evening. I was just wondering how are you thinking about balancing investments for maintaining low to mid-teens margin profile?

Our philosophy really hasn't changed. We've been in a pretty dynamic environment for the last couple of years, and we respond to that environment as it comes. And so over the course of this year, especially we've seen hiring trends be relatively flat towards the front part of the year, and then that trend starts to soften towards the back end of the year, and we've adjusted accordingly. So over the course

of

the year, we're delivering margins in the low to mid-teens consistent with the feedback that we provided all year long. But we're doing that not in response to or in direction of any single quarters performance, but in terms of long-term performance. That's the primary lens that we use.

Okay, thank you. And then you're obviously making really good progress on job seeker traffic growth. What tailwinds do you see coming from this momentum, whether new employer conversations, better matching, anything like that? I have one more follow-up if we have time.

Yeah, this is David. So on the job seeker front, zoom all the way out, obviously, we're a two-sided marketplace. We monetize entirely on the employer side of the marketplace, but job seekers are the foundational element that brings our employers here. So as we grow and as we grow relative to our competitors on the job seeker front, that makes everything in our business work better from new business acquisition to matching technology to retention of customers and keeping customers happy, keeping their intent to return as their hiring needs come back in the case of small businesses or keeping their -to-month hiring needs in the case of enterprise customers as robust as possible and keeps our value proposition as robust as possible. And it's not only the absolute number, but it's now this compounding trend line of being the fastest growing, highest momentum job seeker destination in the job space that gives us a lot of confidence that this is a forward-looking indicator. Every single major move in our view of the history of the online job space in terms of employer revenue dollars has been preceded by a major move in job seeker market share and we're seeing that job seeker market share in our business, which makes us very, very optimistic for the future as the macro environment changes.

And this is Ian. I would just say that in an environment where every player in the recruiting space is confronted with the reality of reduced hiring demand from employers, the one place where we feel we can most clearly see and fight for market share is with job seekers. And the measure of how our marketplace is improving is I think made apparent by how successful we have been, not just in the quarter, not just in the year, but over the last two years in the steady increase in job seeker traffic where we have been a disproportionate winner relative to all of our peers.

All right, thank you. And then more on the employer side, you said that some employers are coming back to ZipRecruiter without a marketing effort. How should we factor that into our models? And is that a growing trend that you're seeing?

Yeah, so great question. So we're extremely excited about driving brand awareness above 80% on both the job seeker and the employer side of the marketplace. So from a standing start a little over a decade ago to where we are today, that's been a significant and ongoing investment. And we see that as being a major asset as we go forward. That said, we still believe we're in the growth and early stages of building this marketplace. So we plan to continue to invest in that brand, but we do see over time that significant numbers of every single cohort come back to us as their hiring needs come back. And that's especially true in that small business segment that I mentioned a little bit earlier, where their hiring needs are often intermittent. If you have five or 10 or 25 employees, you're not necessarily hiring at every single second. And so staying top of mind in between job searches is critical for us. And that's where having brand awareness and being top of mind is so important. So we're gonna continue to invest in that. But as we've studied this business, as we've studied other online marketplaces, as we've studied jobs, online jobs, marketplaces in other countries, what we've seen is marketing and sales have come down over time as businesses cross into the two decade kind of age in their life cycle. And there's no magic formula to that, but it gives us very high confidence that already at our current scale and at our current brand awareness, we're reaching virtually every single job seeker and every single employer with our marketing and messaging in a given year, often multiple times. And so as we scale our revenue, the reason we have confidence in our 30% long-term adjusted EBITDA target is because we're not going to have to scale on the -to-market side as revenue scales.

I would just add that if you go back to the post-COVID initial recovery, back when we were still being careful about the investment of marketing dollars, we were not yet certain as to the steadiness or persistence of said recovery. Like the advantage of having top of mind brand name recognition really becomes apparent when hiring demand is increasing, because without spending money on marketing dollars, we saw a surge in organic business and that's where it really manifested into the operating leverage that we've come to appreciate so much. So I think we're well positioned as a top of mind answer for most of the employers in America is still like, where should I go to post my job? ZipRecruiter is one of the ready obvious solutions. So that's a real advantage in the scenario where we see hiring demand start to increase.

Okay, thank you very

much.

There's no further question at this time and that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.