“Job fairs are particularly ineffective in recessions. They are heavily attended by job seekers and lightly attended by employers,” said John Challenger, CEO of the firm, in a statement. “Many of the employers that do attend are seeking very low-level workers, volunteers or unpaid sales representatives/franchises who have to be prodigious sellers to make a living wage.”

Management recruiting firms and also ranked on the more effective side among those polled. Employer Web sites fell into the mid-range of effective ways to finding work.

“Job seekers must learn how to use all of the tools at their disposal, including networking, the Internet, newspapers, job fairs and even cold-calling employers,” Challenger said.

And unemployed IT professionals may have more positions to choose from in the coming months, some research suggests. According to recent data from Foote Partners, the IT industry added jobs in July, after posting losses for five consecutive months. 

, IT jobs continued to be cut since February, with losses ranging between 3,000 and 11,000 per month. July marked a net gain of 7,400 IT jobs, which “is very encouraging news [and] maybe the turning point we have all been anticipating,” said David Foote, co-founder, CEO and chief research officer at Foote Partners.