Job hunters are on the prowl in the web world and their numbers are increasing at a phenomenal pace.

India's online job seeking population in 2005-06 stood at 6.5 million, an astounding 71 per cent growth over the 3.8 million in 2004-05. With 100 million Indians expected to use the Internet by 2007-08 from the present 38.5 million, the number of online job seekers is expected to cross 9.2 million this year (2006-07), says a study conducted by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

The report puts the market size of the Indian online recruitment industry at Rs 145 crore in 2005-06. It is estimated to reach Rs 241 crore in 2006-07.

Job search is one of the top five activities that Indians do online (e-mail, surfing, chatting, search and job search), it says.

There are enough reasons as well to search for a plum job on the net.

"Internet is the most immediate, convenient and comprehensive resource for employment seekers to research for jobs and careers and the online job sites apart from offering a huge data bank offer myriad of tools both job seekers and employers," asserts IAMAI President Subho Ray.

"You can search for jobs anytime and from anywhere. And the database that can be searched is huge," says a 26-year-old software professional.

( www.financialexpress.com)