We all know that companies hire when they have the need to replace staff regardless of the time of year! But, aside from filling an existing position, other hiring can be a function of time of year. Hiring occurs when business is forecasted to grow, such as seasonal hiring for retail holiday sales or summer resort/hospitality positions.  

The prime time for hiring is usually October-January and May-June. 

Keep in mind that most companies’ yearly budgets come out either in January or July. Often, when revenue is growing and business begins to boom, companies will wait for the new yearly budget to add positions due to all the hidden costs of hiring. The budget needs to accommodate the new position’s earnings, PTO, and benefits package. In this scenario, the prime time for hiring is usually October-January and May-June.  Most people don’t consider this when seeking a new position. 

Holidays are busy times and many people don’t want to start a new job around the Fall/Winter holidays. Job seekers know they won’t have benefit time accrued to accommodate their holiday time off needs or they may not want to leave their current position until the holiday bonuses come out. Immediately after the Winter holidays, people tend to move slower and avoid change. Again, they lose out on potential opportunities for January hiring. Even if one really wants to change jobs, they often wait too long to initiate the change and many of the potential job matches have already been filled. 

The same scenario applies to the May-June hiring season. People don’t want to start a new job in late spring because they won’t have PTO to accommodate their summer vacations and activities. Companies know that many of their current employees will be planning summer vacations, so they want to get the new employees hired and oriented to cover for the summer vacationers. Still other companies delay hiring if the position isn’t filled by the end of June knowing that summer is generally slow for many businesses. They may delay filling the position until October when business picks up again. 

For these reasons, job seekers tend to avoid the prime times for hiring. By the time many people are ready to make a job change, most of the newly added positions, especially leadership roles have already been filled by the few job seekers willing to make the change during these “inconvenient” times of year. Most people apply to jobs in early spring or late summer because it’s more convenient to their personal lives; however, job postings tend to be fewer and competition is often is the greatest during those times.

This is important information to consider if you’re are actively seeking to change positions. Remember, relevant jobs can be posted at any time of the year to replace employees who left; but, prime hiring times with the least competition is October-January and May-June.Jobs that are posted in December may not start interviewing until January. 

Now is the time to get your resume professionally written so you have it ready to apply as those relevant jobs arise.

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