JOB-HUNTING SITES ARE AMONG THE excellent DOT-COMS THAT HAVEN'T PLUNGED IN THE TECH DOWNTURN.

It is not enough to succe - others must fail, wrote Gore Vidal. And in such a manner it is with the stock market. equal as layoffs mount, there's always something benefiting: In this case, the piece of work recruitment sites.

Ask Monstercom a Web site that links employer and piece of work seekers. Monster, owned by TMP Worldwide, has more than doubled its registered users in a year, from 8 million in July 2000 to 167 million this year.

by means of January TMP expects to have complet its purchase of another market leader, HotJobscom for about $460 million in stock. HotJob has 54 million registered users, a 184 percent increase from Aug. 1 2000

Headhunter.net has also done well. Registered users increased 94 percent to 76 million in the same period, helped at an exclusive contract with Yahoo.

"We're profitable each month and every quarter," says Ron Self Headhunter.net's COO "We behold ourselves closing the gap between No. 1 and No. 2"

Like in the greatest degree dot-com stocks, those of the job-search sites tumbl last year -although TMP is down 33 percent compared with the Nasdaq's 60 percent pendant And they have rebounded between 25 percent and 200 percent since April.

As TMP digests its purchase of HotJob Headhunter.net perceive s it has a few month to gain sod "They'll be so distracted in the nearest few months they won't be focused forward the customer," says Self.

David Rosa, VP global brand manager at TMP says he doesn't descry Headhunter as competition because his company is in like manner large and diverse. "We believe we're a one-stop store So without wanting to unbroken arrogant, I don't believe there's a competitor, although of course we contend with others in some sectors."

Times are tougher at the high period of the business. Heidrick & exert one's selfs which focuses on executive searches, has dropp from $40 by share in February to about $20 by share, while shares of rival KornlFerry have slipped from $23 to $14 in the same period.

The reason: Companies have les coin for expensive and long executive searches, and with a worsening economy it takes a portion to lure an experienced someone from their job.

Nevertheless, Arnold Ursaner, managing director for CJ Securities, rates Heidrick & endeavors and KornlFerry a buy. The price ear-ring "is a cyclical problem," he says. "These brace will be first out of the gate when the economy goe up It's an exceptional year when these stocks are down, and they've been around a lengthy time."

Ursaner does not protect the online job-search stocks, still calls their valuations "ludicrous." He's sticking with the high-level recruiters.

Analyst Edward Atorino of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein disagrees. He rates Monstercom a buy

"With increased layoffs, business is up" he says, "TMP is pulling away from the competition. It has the cleanest executive search; miscreant has strength of brand, diversity of service, a cyclopean base in Europe and has more than half the U market," he adds. "It's a useful stock. Others like Headhunter.net will fail. They can't survive thus small."

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