“Taking Care of” Business Picking Up

That’s right, according to job postings on Sittercity.com, unemployment and the economy in the U.S. look to be improving.  Sittercity.com claims to be “the nation’s largest and most trusted online source for babysitters, nannies, senior caregivers, pet sitters, housekeepers and tutors” – and it reports that job postings on the site were up 128% in the last quarter of 2009 over its first quarter postings – with more than 9,700 new jobs posted in December alone.      

Of course, that could just mean that people are being asked to work longer (or different) hours – in fact, the firm cites a recent survey of its members where almost a third of those who posted a job on the site did so because they recently found a new job or changed jobs (said another way, more than two-thirds did so for other reasons).      

The announcement – clearly done with an eye toward boosting the business prospects of Sittercity.com (not that there’s anything wrong with that) says it has a new job posted every four minutes – up from every five minutes last year.  Furthermore, the firm says that in a recent survey, more than 45% of the Sittercity.com care providers stated that they were pursuing caregiving as their career (the firm claims to be the “inventor of online caregiving”).      

“Caregiving is a necessity, not a luxury,” said Genevieve Thiers, founder of Sittercity.com.  “We would expect job postings looking for a full-time nanny or after-school babysitter to increase as the economy continues to improve and more and more people head back to work.”      

Of course, the number of actual jobs being generated on Sittercity.com may be even higher than the above statistic since it leaves out those that find a sitter through search rather than posting a job. On average, half of Sittercity.com parents post jobs while the other half conduct searches to find their perfect sitter match, according to the firm.      

You can find out more information at http://www.sittercity.com.