Some rumours have it that the recession is nearing an end, other rumours say that the end is not yet in sight, but no matter which rumours you believe, finding a job is still damn difficult. Jobs are still being cut at an alarming rate and any vacancies that arise are snapped up more quickly than you can say “curriculum vitae”. But we’re living in a world dominated by social media and that, experts say, is where the battles for employment are now being fought.

Newspaper classifieds are going the way of the dodo, recruitment agencies and even online jobs boards have seen the light and are doing a lot of their investigating through social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and yes, Twitter. And if you, as a job hopeful, aren’t active on these sites, you can bet your briefcase that you’re losing out.

Where do you like to hang out online? Do you like the (relatively) clean lines of Facebook or the busy-ness of MySpace, the professionalism of LinkedIn or the casualness of Twitter? Are you aware that your choice of social network is indicative of your social status? Apparently, the invisible castes that delineate the social classes in the real world also apply online.

Nielson Claritas recently conducted a study on the demographics four different social networks (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter) and found that affluent, highly educated people congregate on Facebook, while less affluent, less educated people favour MySpace.

According to the study, nearly 23% of the people on Facebook earn more than $100,000 per year; nearly 42% earn more than $75,000. 37% of MySpace users earn less than $50,000, while only 28% of Facebook users fit into this salary bracket.