Job Searches Increase by Twenty-Seven Percent in November

Simply Hired, Inc., the largest job search engine and recruitment advertising network, released November employment data for location and occupation searches in the United States. Despite the traditional lull in job seeker activity during the holidays, site usage increased by 27% during the two weeks ending November 20, 2008 as compared to the two weeks ending November 6, 2008.

Over the course of these two-week periods, New York topped the list cities with the most searches with an increase of 104%, followed by Sunnyvale, home of ailing internet giant Yahoo and Symantec, with a percent increase of 67%. Sacramento (62%), Miami (58%) and San Francisco (57%) rounded off the top five. The number of searches decreased in a few cities, including Oakland (-37%), Cincinnati (-21%), and San Jose (-13%).

The presence of certain occupations in searches increased as well, with 20 occupations increasing by 25% or more over the two-week periods before Thanksgiving. Searches for entertainment jobs such as actors, athletes, musicians and dancers increased the most (37%) followed by searches for math jobs like actuaries, research analysts and statisticians with a one-third increase. Other occupations with an increased presence in searches during November include production workers (32%), architectural and civil drafters (30%), and hotel jobs (29%). Searches for construction work and forestry occupations decreased slightly over the two-week periods.