WebProNews

As the weeks and months go by, a consensus seems to be building that the recession we're experiencing is of the storm-of-the-century variety.  But considering what new Hitwise data shows, it's almost hard not to believe that the people behind employment websites wouldn't be happier if this sort of thing became the norm.

We're not calling anyone an economic sadist, mind you.  It's only that, as Heather Hopkins reported, "This year visits to websites in the Employment and Training category were 17% higher than in January 2008."  And some individual sites are seeing particularly huge gains.

 (Credit: Hitwise)

Indeed "experienced an 88% increase in share of Internet visits year on year in January," according to Hopkins.  Also, "Other fast movers include Snag a Job up 99%, LinkedIn up 138%, the Unemployment Office for Ohio up 184% and Simply Hired up 151%."

Meanwhile, Career Builder is actually king of the employment sites category in terms of market share, and Yahoo HotJobs, Monster, USAJOBS, and Job.com are all members of the top 10 list, so it appears that there are plenty of users to go around.

Good for the sites.  Just remember to stay a little suspicious of any macroeconomic recommendations you find posted on their official blogs.