RESTON, Va., Jan 29, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- As Job Losses Mount in Challenging U.S. Economy, Americans Turn to the Internet to Pursue New Opportunities

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 Monster.com Job Search* with 6.7 million visitors (up 62 percent), 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
    Monster.com Job Search*                  4,131        6,693           62
    Yahoo! HotJobs Job Search                2,282        5,605          146
    Indeed.com Job Search                    2,712        5,106           88
    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

    *The December 2008 Monster.com Job Search data have been adjusted upward
    from 3.7 million unique visitors to 6.7 million unique visitors due to
    classification of additional Job Search-related URLs that were not
    originally included. With the inclusion of these URLs, Monster.com would
    have ranked #2 in the category. This revised definition will also be
    reflected in future months of Media Metrix data.

"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 site 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

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 www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.

http://www.comscore.com

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