• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, September 10, 2003

With End of Summer Careers and Education Dominate on the Web

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that at-home Internet users flocked to career sites during the week ending August 24th. Traffic to the U.S. Dept. of Labor jumped 55 percent to 289,000 unique visitors from home, as compared to 187,000 visitors during the previous week. More than one million unique visitors accessed Yahoo! HotJobs, a 32 percent week over week increase.

Jarvis Mak, director of analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings, saie "The end of summer marks the end of vacation season. University students are heading back to school and looking for part-time jobs, while others who have been putting off the job search are refocusing their energy."

AOL Careers & Work surged18 percent, Monster is up 12 percent from the previous week, and rounding out the top five fastest growing career sites was CareerBuilder, which increased by four percent to 697,000 unique visitors.

Fastest Growing Career-Related Sites, Week Ending August 24 (U.S., Home x000)

	Unique Audience 8/17/2003	Unique Audience 8/24/2003	% Growth
1. U.S. Dept. of Labor	187	289	55%
2. Yahoo! HotJobs	802	1,056	32%
3. AOL Careers & Work	189	223	18%
4. Monster	2,186	2,447	12%
5. CareerBuilder	673	697	4%

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

And other end of summer action on the Internet:

Top 10 Online Education & Careers Destinations

	Unique Audience (000)	Active Reach (%)
Monster	2,186	2.51
AOL Research & Learn	1,433	1.65
Yahoo! HotJobs	802	0.92
CareerBuilder	673	0.77
U.S. Dept. of Education	653	0.75
University of Phoenix	387	0.44
Merriam-Webster	292	0.33
SparkNotes.com	268	0.31
University of Texas	266	0.31
Cornell University	254	0.29

Top 10 Online Computers & Consumer Electronics Destinations

	Unique Audience (000)	Active Reach (%)
Microsoft	37,949	43.57
Real	7,788	8.94
KaZaA	5,689	6.53
WhenU	5,431	6.24
McAfee	5,019	5.76
Gator Network	4,053	4.65
Symantec	4,049	4.65
Apple	3,719	4.27
Dell	2,989	3.43
Hewlett Packard	2,852	3.27