• February 5, 2008

Visits to Web sites in the employment category were up by an average of 22% during the first four weeks of the year, compared to January 2007, according to new stats from Hitwise. Meanwhile, for the week ending Jan. 26, traffic was up by 27% compared to the same week last year.

CareerBuilder.com took the top spot during that week, snagging 13% of all U.S. visits to the employment category, followed by Yahoo HotJobs with 9% and Monster.com with 4%.

"Each year we see a spike in traffic to employment Web sites after the New Year as people make resolutions around finding a new job," said Heather Dougherty, research director, Hitwise. "This year, while there are certainly those seeking a career change, some Internet employment activity is generated from those in need of a job or anxiety over the state of the economy."

--Tameka Kee