Midweek blues are pushing the UK workforce into hunting for new careers, according to research by fish4jobs.

The report reveals that British productivity falls to its lowest point at 3.15pm on a Tuesday as workers rush online to hunt for new prospects to get them out of their current misery. Each job hunter spends an average of eight minutes and 37 seconds surfing the internet for a new job once they have logged on to the site, and are likely to return to the site on a number of occasions each day.

The research also reveals that UK workers are becoming increasingly blaze and over confident about their efforts to escape from their current job, with two-thirds (65%) admitting to being caught out job hunting by their boss.

It found that a quarter of job seekers admit to having an important looking spreadsheet tucked away in the corner of their computer screen in case the boss comes past their desk and 5% said that their boss didn’t mind staff searching the internet whilst at work.

Joe Slavin (pictured), chief executive of fish4, said: “In our experience, Tuesday afternoons are the trigger point in the week when most employees’ minds start to wander and reflect on their current job situation – hence we always see a spike in traffic just after 3pm. Not only do they start searching for jobs, but they also browse for cars and homes on our site during this period.

“It’s worrying to note that some jobseekers are blatantly looking for jobs during their current worktime – it’s a dangerous game and certainly one that we wouldn’t recommend!”