Are web sites drawing record numbers because people are at home, unemployed, surfing the net?

This article asserts the opposite - that improving economic conditions are drawing more people to the web. Have conditions improved that much? Have more people been employed or has unemployment merely slowed?

clipped from www.sfnblog.com U.S. newspaper companies drew record traffic to their Web sites in the first quarter - on average 74.4 million monthly unique visitors, which represents more than one-third of all online users, according to the latest figures provided by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America, Editor and Publisher reported. The numbers were up from 72 million unique visitors per month during the previous quarter. The data also showed online newspaper visitors contributed more than 3.2 billion page views, or more than 2.3 billion minutes browsing, in the first quarter of 2010, according to the AFP article posted on Google News. "As the economic outlook begins to improve, our industry  will continue to shape its own future with digital products and services that  grow audience and offer maximum value to advertisers," according to NAA President  and CEO John F. Sturm.