January and February are traditionally the busiest times for job seekers, recruiters and hiring managers. But why?

You’ve heard of it! All those new year resolutions. Getting a new job, joining the gym and quitting smoking. The new year is a motivation for actually getting things done. You can compare it to Monday and Tuesday. After the weekend or a holiday people feel re-energised and motivated. This feeling gets enhanced when the new year is around the corner. The desire for self-improvement is generally strongest at the beginning of the week and even stronger at the beginning of a new year.

So, back to where we started. January and February are the best months to apply for jobs in almost every industry. This is the case because at the beginning of the new year all recruiters and hiring managers will be back in the office. Which means that the hiring process goes much quicker as when many people are away on holiday or the office is closed over Christmas. The second reason is that companies get their new hiring budget for the new year, so the hiring that was delayed at the end of the year can now get pushed through. Furthermore, many people leave their jobs at the beginning of the year for something else, which means many jobs that need to get filled.

March, April and May are pretty good months too, the hiring process is still up to speed and a new financial year has started in April. Also, as summer is getting a little closer and job vacancies need to get filled. The closer it gets to the summer months the quicker companies want to finish the interview process and hire someone.

The Summer months June, July and August are basically the lesser months to apply for jobs. Many people are on holiday which makes it hard to plan face-to-face interviews and make final decisions. This all slows down the hiring process. Another reason Summer is not the best time is because there has been a big hiring push the first 5 months of the year. Therefore, there is less need to hire new employees during summer.

This of course doesn’t mean that there are no jobs around and nobody is hiring, it’s just a little harder and can take more time.

After Summer the hiring process speeds up again, as everyone returns from vacation. September and October are probably the second-best months to look for a job after January and February.

And then there are November and December. As you might have noticed by now is that the hiring process goes in waves. In November companies start to postpone hiring to January, as there will be a new budget. And as the holiday season is around the corner,the less important tasks will have to make room for more important tasks. And this “less important task” might happen to be your job application.

But during the holiday period people have finally time to start looking for jobs, as it is very time consuming. Especially at the beginning when writing a CV and cover letter and finding recruiters takes up a lot of time. You might not get the quickest response, but your application might get picked up straight after the holidays and the hiring process can begin. Take advantage of the time off during the holidays to prepare well for your job hunt.