Hiring Goes Dead During The Holidays – Or Does It?

There’s a chill in the air and jack-o-lanterns on the porch. Jumbo bags of candy fill the stores, and Thanksgiving fixings are creeping in. It’s the holidays! October-November-December is the sprint to the finish line, and the starting gun went off ten days ago.

A common perception among job seekers is that businesses push a big shiny red PAUSE button during October-November-December to focus on holiday parties and year-end vacations – and there is some truth to that. By no means universal, many companies experience a hiring slow down (but not necessarily freeze) in the last months of the year. A variety of factors play a role:

• Companies with a January to December fiscal year may budget new hire positions to start in the 1st quarter of the new fiscal year.

• Companies want to boost their year-end balance sheet. Pausing new payroll expenditures is an accounting method that helps achieve that end.

• People take holiday vacations, and if enough staff who are part of the recruiting and hiring process are absent, hiring slows down.

• End-of-year job duties often require more time and effort. Whether you’re a college professor administering and grading finals, a social media manager hammering away at holiday KPIs, or an accountant doing year-end, your core work consumes your time.

That perception is part reality, but it’s also a part myth. There is no reason to slow down your efforts to find a new job during the holidays – especially the 2021 holidays. Things are not back to normal. The job market remains uncharted and uncertain, so this holiday season is still guesswork on many fronts. Here are some quick things to consider:

·      Hiring is always happening. Even during bona fide hiring slowdowns, hiring is happening. Whether evergreen jobs that recruit 24-7-365 or seasonal surges, hiring is happening right now. Take one of the examples above. A company may defer new hires to the new fiscal year and crank up that process in earnest in January, but they may start posting openings in December. But you won’t know if you take the holidays off and stop applying for jobs!

• The holidays are typically a boom time for retail and hospitality – two sectors that need a blockbuster season from coast to coast. Businesses hope there is a shift from online shopping back to in-store, and there are full airplanes, hotels, restaurants, and bars. There should be a seasonal surge in hiring.

• Companies can’t find workers and have sweetened their recruiting efforts to avoid a worker shortage heading into the crucial holiday season. The means increased compensation, signing bonuses, and retention efforts.

• Global supply chain issues are already impacting the 2021 holiday season. (“There Really is a perfect storm of supply chain issues, a logistics expert explains.” 10/04/21]. Companies large and small can’t move their product. In the United States, there is a truck driver shortage, and transport ships hover off the coast of our ports, unable to unload their wares. Staff are needed to resolve these issues – and a surge in supply chain hiring in the fourth quarter is quite possible this year, when consumer demand skyrockets.

• When the office empties for the holidays, some people choose to stay behind. They use the quiet time and free time to catch up. Some of those people are recruiters and hiring managers.

• Remember that you know you will not get the job if you do not apply. Be vigilant over the holidays because so many others won’t. Your resume and work ethic will stand out in a less crowded field. You cannot predict when a little extra effort will turn into a real opportunity, but it is easy to predict what will happen with no effort at all.

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.