When Is The Best Time To Hire?
It’s the perfect time to begin the hiring process if you’re in need of a few more employees to fill those empty positions. Throughout the year there are many times where the job market is booming, and other times where it’s quite stagnate. In fact, many sites use certain months for job listings over others due to factors such the change from quarter three to four or for other reasons such as popular vacation times. Let’s break it up and see which months tend to provide the most successful results. Our model for how we divided the months is inspired by TopResume’s blog titled “The Best Times of Year to Look for a Job”.
January/February
Across the board, on sites such as TopResume, CareerSidekick, The Balance Careers, Glassdoor, and Workpolis, January is the peak time to fill that new position. Common reasons for this trend is the slow month of December as well as leaving peak-holiday season. TopResume says that “these are the months most companies receive updated budgets and sales forecasts. Executives have a better idea of what they need and whether they can afford to hire new team members.” Although January can start slowly for some companies, by the middle of the month into February, applications and job postings are booming.
March, April, and May
While not as hot as January and February, the months of March, April, and May are still great times to post open positions. This is due to the surge in hiring from January and February. The momentum is enough to carry throughout the first half of the year. CareerSidekick notes that although this is another great time to hire, it also means that “there’s more competition”. However, the companies doing the hiring (you) tend to feel more pressure during these months, especially as summer approaches: “as you get closer to summers, companies feel more pressure to finish the interview process and hire somebody. This is because they know people in the company will go on vacation in the summer and it’ll be harder to finish up the hiring process.” Basically, be sure to get those postings up before summer time rolls around if you need to fill that position immediately.
June, July, and August
During the Summer months, it’s important to keep a “steady pace” according to Glassdoor. If you’re filling those spots early, sometime between January and May, then those jobs will be off the market due to the beginning of the year push for positions. Something that could be in your favor as you begin the hiring process during these months is fewer applicants, which, depending on how you look at it, can offer a tighter candidate pool with candidates who may be more in line with what you’re looking for as opposed to those crazy busy months with hundreds of applicants. While summer job postings aren’t a total loss, it’s worth considering that your chances are better at the beginning or end of year. Keep in mind that although your candidate pool maybe smaller during these months, you can always find passive candidates that may be a great fit for the position!
September and October
End of summer, beginning of Fall is another great time to restart the hiring process. Much like the beginning of the year, September and October are also months that face the end of vacations and also a new quarter. TopResume discusses the change in hiring seasons as “waves” with Fall being the “third and final hiring spree of the year”. Similar to the pressure felt in April/May, the same happens in October, according to The Balance Careers : “Much like April is the peak for jobs in the spring, October is the peak in the fall. But in October, managers are more keenly aware of the upcoming holiday slowdown. Not only do managers need to hire people before the holidays, but many will want to onboard them prior to the holiday season too, so the pressure is on.” Basically, if you didn’t start the hiring process in January/February, October is really your second chance before the end of the year.
November and December
TopResume humorously refers to November and December as “The Winter Plague”. This is due to the end of the year as well as hiring managers putting aside certain tasks for the new year, ie, January being such a great month for hiring due to all of the unwanted tasks being brushed aside. The Balance Careers doesn’t want to totally discourage you though, during this time of year, everyone knows when potential candidates take time off if they’re working--around Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, with that in mind, consider posting your jobs earlier in the month(s) rather than later to ensure your listing isn’t posted during peak travel times. Give it a shot either way, it can’t hurt to open up a posting!
Why does this Matter?
We wanted to present the hiring stats per month to really highlight the high and low times. At ApplicantOne, from now until the end of October we have launched a brand new deal and promo code for all New SOURCE orders. All you have to do is type “Halloween19” into the promo code box at the end of your order, which is both desktop and mobile friendly, and receive a 10% off. That’s $150 off your order! What better time to take advantage of SOURCE than October, one of the best times of the entire year to hire!? For more information on our brand new deal, check it out here.