NEW YORK, USA: The world financial crisis has produced more than its share of losers. MySpace and other online social networks want to capitalize on them.

MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's international media conglomerate News Corp, told Reuters that its jobs site has seen a big rise in traffic during the past year -- particularly after the onset of the financial meltdown.

In the past year, traffic has risen threefold, said Angela Courtin, senior vice president of marketing, entertainment and content at MySpace.

The number of unique users between the ages of 21 and 34 visiting the jobs site rose to more than 160,000 in November 2008 from about 83,500 in the same period a year ago, according to numbers that MySpace provided to Reuters on Thursday. The site has not seen spikes like that before, Courtin said.

The average number of minutes per user rose to seven in November from one in the same period last year.

The appeal appears to center on the old saying that misery loves company. Seeking job opportunities is something that often depends on relationships as well as scouring job boards -- and sites like MySpace and LinkedIn provide both.

MySpace is not the only one. LinkedIn late last year saw membership jump to 31 million from 18 million at the beginning of 2008 as people used the business networking site to seek connections for jobs that are increasingly harder to come by.

The privately held LinkedIn said it got 25 percent more registrations last fall than it had forecast.