As unemployment rises, workers rush online; Women may be hardest hit

The faltering economy may be hitting women harder than men.

Online researcher comScore found that women in 2008 spent more time looking for jobs online than men.

The finding was part of a comScore study which found that about 1 of every 10 adult U.S. Internet users looked for a job online in December. Online job hunting was the fastest growing use of the Internet in 2008.

comScore found that 18.8 million U.S. Internet users used job hunting Web sites in December -- up 51 percent from December 2007. About 190.6 million U.S. Internet users over age 18 were online during the month.

Women spent more time on job sites than men - 53.7 percent to 46.3 percent. In December 2007, the percentages were reversed with men spending the most time online job hunting.

“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,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore.

comScore said CareerBuilder was the most visited online site, recording 9.1 million visitors in December. Yahoo HotJobs and Indeed.com were second and third. Monster.com was the only online site which recorded a drop in visitors. SimplyHired grew the fastest, jumping 161 percent from a year earlier with 3.1 million visitors.

conScore found that the sagging economy may be hitting mid-career and higher income workers harder. Use of job sites by those between the ages of 25-49 was up 4.8 percentage points. Households making at least $75,000 grew by 3.1 points.