Job Search Ranks as Fastest Growing U.S. Online Category in 2008
RESTON, Va., Jan 22, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an analysis of Americans' usage of the job search category, the fastest growing content site category in 2008. The category has seen the number of visitors grow 51 percent to 18.8 million visitors, as layoffs mount and millions of Americans find themselves seeking new job opportunities. The final months of the year, which typically experience seasonal softness in job searching behavior due to the holidays, were instead some of the most heavily trafficked months of 2008.
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CareerBuilder.com Job Search led the category with 9.1 million visitors, up 78 percent versus year ago, followed by Yahoo! HotJobs Job Search with 5.6 million visitors (up 146 percent) and Indeed.com Job Search with 5.1 million visitors (up 88 percent). SimplyHired, Inc. had the strongest growth rate of the top ten sites in the category, growing 161 percent to 3.1 million visitors.
Job Search Category
December 2008 vs. December 2007
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Dec-2007 Dec-2008 % Change
Total Internet : Total Audience 183,619 190,650 4
Job Search 12,445 18,826 51
CareerBuilder.com Job Search 5,132 9,121 78
Yahoo! HotJobs Job Search 2,282 5,605 146
Indeed.com Job Search 2,712 5,106 88
Monster.com Job Search 4,131 3,776 -9
Simply Hired, Inc. 1,188 3,104 161
JOB.COM Job Search 731 1,237 69
MSN Careers by CareerBuilder.com
Job Search 593 1,004 69
AOL Find a Job by CareerBuilder.com
Job Search 504 856 70
Jobs.net Job Search 350 368 5
Jobster.com Job Search 186 365 97
"While much of the U.S. economy is suffering, one online category that has performed significantly better than average during these challenging times is job search," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore. "Online job search resources provide a vital service to those in need of new job prospects and opportunities, and Americans are turning online for this assistance now more than ever."
Women's Share of Time Spent on Job Sites Sees Growth
comScore also conducted a profile of visitors to the job search category, based on various demographic segments' share of minutes spent on Web sites in the category in December 2008 and compared it to the same month in 2007. This profile reveals which demographic segments were disproportionately affected by the current job market. Interestingly, the share of minutes spent by women in the category grew substantially, up 7.2 percentage points versus year ago.
"It's possible that women are being either disproportionately affected by job losses, or perhaps are playing a more active role in the job searches of their spouses," added Mr. Flanagan. "In addition, we could be seeing a phenomenon of more households needing to have dual wage earners, as consumers battle the economic crisis amidst a sharp reduction in the value of their assets and net worth."
Other demographic segments accounting for a substantially higher share of the time spent on job sites in December 2008 than in 2007 include people between the ages of 25-49 (up 4.8 percentage points), households making at least $75,000 (up 3.1 percentage points), households without children (up 4.7 percentage points), and those in the South Atlantic (up 8.5 percentage points) and West South Central (up 3.9 percentage points) census regions.
Demographic Profile of Visitors to the Job Search Category
December 2008 vs. December 2007
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Share of Minutes in Category
Demographic Segments Dec-2007 Dec-2008 Point Change
Gender
All Males 53.5% 46.3% -7.2
All Females 46.5% 53.7% 7.2
Age
Persons: Under 24 16.6% 15.3% -1.4
Persons: 25-49 57.8% 62.7% 4.8
Persons: 50+ 25.5% 22.0% -3.5
Household Income
Under $75,000 56.2% 53.1% -3.1
$75,000+ 43.8% 46.9% 3.1
Presence of Children in Household
Children: No 42.0% 46.6% 4.7
Children: Yes 58.0% 53.3% -4.7
Region (U.S.)
West North Central 6.5% 7.2% 0.7
Mountain 8.3% 6.5% -1.8
Pacific 14.3% 10.9% -3.3
New England 8.0% 3.9% -4.1
Mid Atlantic 14.3% 10.7% -3.6
South Atlantic 19.0% 27.5% 8.5
East South Central 5.7% 6.5% 0.9
West South Central 5.9% 9.8% 3.9
East North Central 18.0% 16.9% -1.1
The job search category and other 2008 highlights will be featured in an upcoming comScore white paper, The comScore 2008 Digital Year in Review, to be released next week.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
SOURCE comScore, Inc.
http://www.comscore.com
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