If it's Tuesday, it must be time to look for a job

Websites advertising financial services job vacancies say they receive their heaviest flow of visitors on Mondays and Tuesdays.

At eFinancialCareers.com, more than 21% of weekly visits take place on a Tuesday, mostly between 11am and 4pm. Only 13% of weekly job seekers visit the site on a Friday, when the weekend is in view.

Other sites report a similar pattern. Jonathan Dunning, head of development at CityJobs.com, also says traffic is heaviest on Tuesdays, especially around lunchtime. 'At this time of the week, people are more likely to be questioning their jobs and looking at the alternatives', said Dunning.

Nor do financial services employees limit themselves to looking for new jobs while at work: house-hunting is also a popular weekday occupation.

Ian Springer, managing director of PrimeLocation.com, the property website, said he received more than 100 visits a week from employees at each of Citigroup, CSFB, Deutsche Bank, DrKW, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.

Springer said most visits to the site took place during working hours, between 8am and 6pm, with a peak at lunchtime. Monday was the most popular day. 'People talk about moving house at the weekend, and then come to work and look for somewhere to live,' said Springer.

He said online house-hunting was well suited to investment bankers: they tend to have good internet access in the office and, at the moment at least, have plenty of spare time in which to use it for non-work matters.