Searches for terms related to the recession have risen significantly in the UK in the last 12 months, according to Hitwise.

Robin Goad, research director at the company, noted in a blog post that queries for 'recession' tend to spike every three months when the latest quarterly data on the UK's GDP is released.

Searches for 'recession' spiked last week, just as they did at the same time last year, he said.

Meanwhile, queries for 'credit crunch' peaked in September and October but have fallen off since and UK web users are searching for 'economics' twice as much as they were last year.

"However, the most 'popular' of the four terms is 'redundancy'. We've highlighted growth in searches for this term before and unfortunately the volume has continued to grow," Mr Goad commented.

Last year, Hitwise released statistics suggesting that the downturn has benefited the online strategy of budget travel companies, with traffic to sites selling low-cost flights and holidays up by 5.3 per cent in the 12 months to September.