The survey, conducted by MarketTools, Inc.'s Zoomerang unit for Inc., a San Diego-based maker of Internet security appliances and Web filtering tools, also found that 61% of workers spend up to two hours a week surfing the Internet for non-work-related information.

And, at least according to one analyst, the amount of time that workers spend will probably increase as the .

"I do think that surfing is definitely up and will continue to go up," said Dan Olds, principal analyst with the Gabriel Consulting Group. "It comes in three varieties. The first is people who are looking for news on the economy, their companies, . They're frantically watching everything in order to try to understand what might happen next. The second are the people who are looking for a place to land, so they're watching , putting in resumes, etc. The third are the escapists. They just want to get away from the gloomy present and disconnect from the news, their work, and their fears for a while."

Olds also said he expects that the time workers surf will continue increase until the financial crisis and start to turn around. The analyst also suggested that the number of corporate surfers is probably higher than found in the survey.

"The [survey results] are definitely low," he said. "I would say that the average individual worker in his own cube does on average of an hour a day of personal surfing - if not a lot more," he added. "But there's a benefit to employers that's often overlooked. Employees can do so much online that actually lets them get more work done. They can handle personal matters, like banking, from the office rather than sneak out during the business day."