The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that the US Unemployment rate just has dropped to 8.6%, the lowest rate since March 2009. Similarly, the market share of visits to state and informational websites about unemployment decreased 18% year over year while visits to job search websites are up 9% during the same time period. Some of the waning visits to unemployment websites may be attributed to the jobless where unemployment benefits have expired and the uptick in visits to job search websites highlights that there are plenty of job seekers out there.
In comparing the search terms driving traffic to unemployment websites year over year, the term “unemployment benefits” experienced a 25% increase in search clicks. Online users are still heavily searching for unemployment benefits by state, in particular Ohio and New York. Georgia and Florida also appeared in the top searches related to unemployment, two states with rates above the national unemployment rate.
When comparing the visitors of employment websites with unemployment websites, “Hope for Tomorrow” was the Mosaic 2011 Type that over-indexed against the online population for visiting the websites of unemployment websites as well as employment listings. Using Experian Mosaic Lifestyle segmentation, a household-based consumer lifestyle segmentation system that classifies all U.S. households and neighborhoods into unique segments, we can understand a more robust view of online consumers who are visiting these websites, including their preferences and habits. For example, the “Hope for Tomorrow” Mosaic Type is characterized as young, single parents living modest lifestyles in smaller cities. Likewise, “Meager Metro Means” and “Rolling the Dice” are also most likely to be visiting both employment and unemployment websites; both groups are described as lower educated urban dwellers with low incomes.
Thanks to Lauren Rice, an Analyst with the Strategic Services team at Experian Hitwise for today’s analysis.