It is a well known fact that the American job market is on a slump right now. Every day we hear thousands of people getting laid off from their current employers. It seems like during these high times there are some sites that are really reaping the benefit of a down economy or the job market. Comscore recently released an analysis which shows usage of job search sites.

Although most other businesses and niches are failing online, one online category that is doing better than previous years is the “job search” category. Usually at the end of the year job search sites take quite a hit since most people aren’t looking for jobs due to holidays and such. However, it has been different due to the failing economy. The end of 2008 has been some of the most heavily trafficked months for job search sites.

According to Comscore, Careerbuilder led the category with 9.1 million visitors which is up by 78% compared to 2007. Monster.com and Yahoo! HotJobs were second and third respectively.

Comscore also analyzed the online job search activity based on gender and it seems like women are more active in online job search than men. This could be either because women are looking for jobs for their spouse or families are realizing that dual income is required to support family during times of recession. The age group that seems to be most active when it comes to looking for jobs online are between the ages 25-49. Please take a look at the image for a  detailed job search activity information.

Beware of Scammers When Using Job Search Sites

One thing all job applicants need to realize is that since job search sites are seeing the most traffic right now, scammers and phishers will be most active on these sites as well. Monster.com, one of the leading job search sites recently lost a huge amount of personal data belonging to millions of job seekers when the database was illegally hacked. This is not the first time Monster.com visitors have been put under risk by hackers and phishers. In 2007 it was hit by a virus which installed malicious software on visitors’ computers. USAJobs (the official job search site of the government) which is Monster.com ’s client was also affected.

Hopefully they will solve this problem soon so the user’s data isn’t compromised yet again.

We sure do hope the job market gets better and hopefully the new administration will be able to create millions of work as promised. Until then looks like online job searching will be the hottest online activity for the Americans.

Have you been using online sites to look for jobs? Please take a minute and share with us.

source : 1,2,3

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