(Updated February 4th 10:00pm)

comScore, Inc., in a study of Americans' usage of the job search category, the fastest growing content site category in 2008, found that the category has seen the number of visitors grow 51% to 18.8 million visitors, as millions of Americans find themselves seeking new job opportunities. The final months of the year were some of the most heavily trafficked months of 2008.

CareerBuilder.com Job Search led the category with 9.1 million visitors, up 78 percent versus year ago, followed by Monster.com Job search, Yahoo! HotJobsJob Search, and Indeed.com Job Search. SimplyHired, Inc. had the strongest growth rate of the top ten sites in the category, growing 161%.

Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore, said "While much of the U.S. economy is suffering, job search has performed significantly better than average web site during these challenging times... Americans are turning online for this assistance now more than ever."

 The consumer profile reveals that demographic segments in the job search category were disproportionately affected in 2008 by the current job market. Interestingly, the share of minutes spent by women in the category grew substantially, up 7.2 percentage points versus year ago.

 Mr. Flanagan added "It's possible that women are being either disproportionately affected by job losses, or... playing a more active role in the job searches of their spouses... we could be seeing a phenomenon of more households needing to have dual wage earners... amidst a sharp reduction in the value of their assets and net worth."

 Other demographic segments accounting for a substantially higher share of the time spent on job sites in December 2008 than in 2007 include people between the ages of 25-49, households making at least $75,000, households without children, and those in the South Atlantic and West South Central census regions.

For more information on the comScore study, The comScore 2008 Digital Year in Review, please visit here.