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It's long been conventional wisdom that if you're job-seeking, you should either lock down your Facebook page or disguise your name so prospective employers can't find you.

You might want to rethink that plan.

Fully 60 percent of employers say they use social networking sites to research job candidates, up significantly from 52 percent last year and 22 percent in 2008, according to CareerBuilder.com.

In addition, 59 percent of hiring managers use search engines to research candidates, compared with 51 percent a year ago.

"Tools such as Facebook and Twitter enable employers to get a glimpse of who candidates are outside the confines of a resume or cover letter," said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer of CareerBuilder. "And with more and more people using social media, it's not unusual to see the usage for recruitment to grow as well."

Which industries are most likely to use social networks to screen candidates?

• IT: 76 percent
• Sales: 65 percent
• Financial services: 61 percent
• Health care: 59 percent
• Retail: 59 percent
• Manufacturing: 56 percent
• Professional and business services: 55 percent

What are employers looking for on your Facebook page?

• 60 percent use it to find information that supports the candidate's qualifications for the job.

• 53 percent of hiring managers want to see if the candidate has a professional online persona.

• 30 percent want to see what other people are posting about the candidate.

• 21 percent admit they're looking for reasons not to hire the candidate.

But here's the big takeaway from this survey: More than two in five employers (41 percent) say they are less likely to interview job candidates if they are unable to find information about that person online--a 6 percent increase since last year.

The national survey, which was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder, included a representative sample of 2,186 hiring managers and human resource professionals and 3,031 fulltime, U.S. workers in the private sector across industries and company sizes.

--From the Editors at Netscape