Feb. 03--A snow day can be a good day to job hunt. Chicagoans, however, may be too busy shoveling Monday to search for a new employer.
Last week's hit-or-miss winter storm shut down companies throughout the Northeast, and some employees used the opportunity to look for a new job. Others were too busy working.
In New York City, which received less than 10 inches of snow, jobs searches were up 40 percent on Tuesday's snow day versus the previous week, according to job search company Monster Worldwide.
In Philadelphia, where a predicted foot of snow turned out to be a dusting, job searches were up 45 percent.
But in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island -- cities that got clobbered by snow -- moving up took a back seat to digging out, with job searches down 43 and 32 percent, respectively, Monster said.
Teachers took advantage of the snow day to look for new jobs, with searches up 173 percent, according to Monster.
The idea of telecommuting also seemed to appeal to snow day job hunters, spiking 56 percent on their extra day off.
Hotel workers who were busy serving stranded travelers didn't have much time to job hunt, however, with hotel industry searches down 39 percent.
"It's quite interesting to see how a weather event like this can impact job searches so significantly," Joanie Courtney, senior vice president of market development at Monster, said in a statement.
In Chicago, where the Super Bowl Sunday storm arrived, predictably, with less hype and plenty of punch, employees will likely be too busy digging out, if not heading into work, to spend the day searching for a better job.
Some travel websites, however, may get a workout.
rchannick@tribpub.com
Twitter @RobertChannick
