Five Things You Don't Know About Job Networking Groups -- and Should

Job-seekers and business owners are regularly urged to attend networking groups to broaden their circle of contacts. The good news is they take the advice in droves. The bad news is it's a big-time suck that often costs a lot and doesn't always translate into work or business growth.

A study by the U.S. Association for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship on the usefulness of business networking found that 43% of business professionals attend as many as 20 networking events each year. While about 55% were satisfied, most noted that attending multiple events is time-consuming and 26% said they weren't sure that it made a whit of difference.