NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The amount of time it takes to find a job is up again, after months of steady declines, as the jump in energy prices following hurricanes Katrina and Rita may be tempering corporate hiring plans, a new survey said Tuesday.

The survey of 3,000 job seekers by job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed the median amount of time it took for someone to find a job in the third quarter was 3.6 months, up 16 percent from 3.1 months the previous quarter. The median means that half of job seekers spent a longer time looking while the other half had a shorter job search.

The jump brought the search time to the longest since 3.96 months in the third quarter of last year.

John Challenger, CEO of the company that conducted the survey, said the increase may be a sign of the additional risks employers see.

"We still do not know the full impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the job market," he said in a statement. "Continuing high energy prices may be slowing companies' hiring plans and could result in the postponement of expansion programs, in which case job search times could remain high."

The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. payrolls fell by 35,000 in September, marking the first time since May 2003 that the economy lost jobs. But the drop in the payroll numbers was not as great as many economists had anticipated, signaling underlying strength in the economy.

The survey also noted that number of job seekers that relocated and the number of individuals that switched fields fell slightly during the third quarter.

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