Job Searches up 27%

Simply Hired just put out a press release containing some November data for location and occupation searches in the United States. Searches were up by 27% overall during the two weeks ending November 20, 2008 as compared to the two weeks ending November 6, 2008 (basically, the month before Thanksgiving). This comes during a time when there is traditionally a lull in traffic.

New York topped the list of highest increase of searches performed in major cities across the country, with an increase of 104%. Sunnyvale, home to Yahoo and Symantec came in second with an increase of increase of 67%. The amount of searches actually decreased in a number of cities, including Oakland (-37%), Cincinnati (-21%), and San Jose (-13%).

A number of occupations had an increased presence in searches between these two-week periods, including 20 occupations with increases of 25% or more. 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. Searches for construction work and forestry occupations decreased slightly over the two-week periods.