VentureBeat

Unisfair is launching online virtual job fairs for businesses as an extension to its virtual trade show business. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company has created an online recruiting tool that allows recruiters and job seekers to interact live.

The company says that, like its virtual trade shows, the job fairs can eliminate expensive travel and improve the productivity of searching and recruiting for jobs. Unisfair’s own survey of more than 100 human resources managers says 64 percent of HR people believe they could improve hiring through virtual job fairs.

Unisfair uses the 3-D rendering of virtual worlds to replicate a convention-center atmosphere with a main hall, exhibit floor, resource center and a job center. Managers can post jobs, screen applicants automatically, and track job seekers. Those job seekers can track positions they have applied for an communicate via chat, instant message and e-mail.

Unisfair’s backers are Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners. It has staged more than 400 virtual events for the likes of Cisco, IBM, and Quest Software.