Employers and staffing firms placed more than 900 job ads for “recruiters and employment specialists” that require social media skills over the past 90 days, up 117 percent from the same period in 2010, according to Wanted Analytics, a data firm that tracks online job ads.

Compared to the same 90-day period in 2010, the amount of job ads for recruiters that required social media skills rose by more than 350 percent versus 2009.

Social media skills now represent 7 percent of all hiring demand for recruiters.

Metropolitan areas with the highest hiring demand for recruiters with social media experience over the last three months were New York, Washington, Chicago, Atlanta and Seattle, all of which saw year-over-year gains in hiring demand.