American Net users search for jobs online

More than 50 million Americans have looked for information about jobs online, according to Pew Internet and American Life.

Overall, 52 million Americans have used the Net to find job-related information, while more than four million go online on a typical day to do so.

The Pew study indicates that the number of online job hunters has risen by more than 60 percent since March 2000.
Back then, 32 million Americans claimed to look for jobs via the Internet, while three million went online each day to do so.

Those most likely to conduct online searches for jobs are young Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29. Some 61 percent of Internet users in this age category look for jobs online compared to 42 percent of those aged between 30-49 and 27 percent of those aged between 50-64.

The study reveals that on a typical day, men are twice as likely as women to look for work online.
Around 51 percent of those who are currently unemployed look for jobs via the Internet and on an average day, a tenth of the unemployed with Internet access are online scouring job sites, compared to just four percent of those in full-time employment.

In terms of ethnic groups, African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to search for jobs online than Caucasians.
While 44 percent of Whites have gone online to look for employment, 60 percent of African Americans and Hispanics with Internet access have used the Net to find work.

Over 50 percent of people working in sales-related jobs who have Internet access look for job information online, compared to 44 percent of online executives and professionals, and 49 percent of wired clerical and office workers.
The study also indicates that those in higher income brackets and with high education levels are more likely to look for new jobs online.