Job-Seeking Seniors Fuel 20% Increase in Career-Site Visitors

February 27, 2009

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Boomers & Older

The number of unique US visitors to career-development websites increased 20% year-over-year, rising from 41.5 in January 2008 to 49.7 million in January 2009, and was fueled by a surge in visitors ages 65+ who are apparently still in the job market, according to data from Nielsen Online.

CareerBuilder Network was the #1 online career development destination in January, with 20.8 million unique visitors. Yahoo HotJobs and Monster.com took the #2 and #2 spots, with 11.7 million and 9.5 million unique visitors, respectively.

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“With the current unstable economy and rising unemployment rate, more people are heading online to search for jobs, and not just the unemployed,” said Chuck Schilling, research director, agency & media, Nielsen Online. “The career development category also grew 20% year-over-year among at work users, suggesting that many people are trying to build up their resumes and get a sense of the job market before the next potential layoff.”

Visitors age 65+ On the Rise

The number of unique visitors age 65 and older to career development websites grew 41% year-over-year, increasing from 2.5 million in January 2008 to 3.6 million in January 2009.

This represented the largest increase year-over-year among people ages 18+.

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“While 65 used to be considered the age when most people retired, we are seeing a trend toward later retirement or partial retirement,” Schilling said. “Much of this desire to stay employed longer can probably be attributed to the fact that people are living longer and feel the need to keep generating income and sock away more retirement savings, especially in light of the current economic climate and its effect on people’s nest eggs.”

Online Colorado Residents Most Impacted by Job Losses

According to Nielsen Online’s @Plan, Spring 2009 Release, 5.4% of the online population ages 18+ is currently not employed. According to composition index, residents from Colorado were nearly 50% more likely not to be employed than the average web visitor. Residents in Michigan and Utah were the second and third most likely to report not being employed, with indexes of 144 and 136, respectively. @Plan is based on a quarterly survey of approximately 36,000 US adult internet users.

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