Jobs, Travel Sites Get Hotter in the U.K.

[London, ENGLAND] Internet research company NetValue
reported Friday that the number of visitors to travel
and job sites in the U.K. increased substantially
during January this year.

Whether motivated by the incessant rain, the wind,
the cold, the woes of commuting to work — or just
plain job dissatisfaction — nearly 1.3 million
U.K. Internet users visited a job site in January,
double the previous month.

Perhaps hoping to get away from it all, users of
U.K. travel sites numbered 3.7 million, up from 3
million in December 2000. One in three Internet
users in the U.K. went to a travel site, and one in
nine went job-hunting online during January.

Holding onto top position in the travel sector is
lastminute.com, with 5.5 per cent of users visiting
its site in January. In second and third place
were airlines EasyJet and British Airways, with
Thomascook.com in fourth position.

“In January, people book their summer holidays and
look into changing jobs — and this year we are
seeing people doing these things online,” explained
NetValue’s Alki Manias.

Eighteen months ago, news that job hunting on the
Internet had increased by 74 percent from one
month to another would have caused a stampede to
buy shares, launch new ventures, and create a
speculative “bubble.” Today, it will not raise
too many eyebrows, partly because a lot of the
traffic has almost certainly come from laid-off
dot-com staff looking for new jobs.

Of those seeking jobs online, one in five
is a professional, 10 percent are middle management
and 26 percent are students. Very few of them are
top earners, according to NetValue. Only 1.6 percent
of them make more than £6,000 (US $8,600) a month.

NetValue also has operations in France, Germany,
Sweden, Spain, Denmark, U.S., Mexico, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Korea, China and Taiwan.