A surging U.S. unemployment rate is forcing millions of Americans into a new full-time job: job searching.  How are these job seekers using the internet as a tool in their quest for employment?

1. Search Trends for “Jobs”

The internet has been a key resource in job searching for quite some time now, with search volume for “jobs” being steadily high from 2004 to 2007 (see below chart).  You’ll notice in 2008 a gradual climb, consistent with the belief that the recession began taking its toll in early in 2008.  Then at the end of the year, when recognition of the nation’s poor economic condition became mainstream, searches for “jobs” nearly doubled.

2. Job Search Websites

There’s no shortage of job search engines, from niche industry sites to wide-reaching portals (Monster, Career Builder, etc.).  According to Compete.com, Monster.com has been the most successful in reaching job seekers in what were arguably the hardest-hitting months of the recession.  Not only is Monster the unchallenged leader in market share, they were also the only well-known job site that saw an increase in traffic in the month of February.  They must be following the old marketing rule of thumb: advertise during a recession!

More Recessionomics posts to come…stay tuned!

UPDATE: see a continuation of this post, written in response to AdAge’s “Who Had the Better Media Strategy? CareerBuilder vs. Monster”.

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