Traditional, person-to-person networking ranked as the most successful method for landing a job with Internet job boards ranking second and staffing firms ranking third, according to Right Management, the outplacement division of ManpowerGroup Inc. (NYSE: MAN).

The company analyzed data on almost 60,000 people in North America to whom it provided career transition services over the past three years. It found that 41 percent of workers found a job by traditional networking in 2010.

Internet job boards ranked second with 25 percent of workers saying they found a job through that method. Staffing firms ranked third at 11 percent. The direct approach (cold calling) worked for 8 percent of job seekers; responding to an advertisement was successful for 2 percent and other methods worked for 10 percent.

The analysts found that online networking worked for 4 percent of job seekers.

“The job search is changing and some approaches are losing ground to others, but classic, systematic networking continues to be most effective way to find suitable employment,” said Carly McVey, Right Management’s Vice President of Career Management. “Certainly technology plays a growing role. But online social networking may not always be separate from traditional networking since one so often leads to the other. A job seeker uses the Internet to track down former associates or acquaintances and then reaches out to them in person. And, just like a cold call, the Internet is a way to make an initial contact with a prospective employer.”