Online job seekers must search longer.

• Position: Internet

So much for the benefits of technology. Internet-addicted job seekers may be partly to blame for the fact that the unemployed are taking 23% longer to find a new position than it took during the last recession, when the "benefits" of online job searching were unavailable. "A growing number of unemployed Americans waste time browsing the estimated 4,000 to 5,000 online job sites, blanketing them with resumes, and then waiting for callbacks. It is a formula for long-drawn-out joblessness," argues John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of the international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

Since the onset of the recession in March, 2001, the average duration of unemployment has grown to 15.2 weeks, 23% longer than the 12.4 weeks it took job seekers to become reemployed during the pre-Internet-era recession that lasted from July, 1990, to March, 1991. While the Internet has the potential to be very useful for job seekers, Challenger indicates that it has become the primary tool for many, when it should be considered secondary to the traditional technique of meeting prospective employers in person.

In addition to slowing job search efforts, the Internet is prolonging the hiring process for the employer. In a survey of 5,000 recruiters and hiring managers by an online resume site, 92% said they were inundated with irrelevant responses. Seventy-one percent said that a majority of the resumes they...