Job Search During the Holidays: Why November and December Still Pay Off

It's almost November, and you can feel the advice shifting. "Nobody hires over the holidays." "Just rest and start fresh in January." On X this week, one recruiter's joke summed up the mood: "We'll start hiring in January" really means catching up in week one, reviewing candidates in week three and onboarding sometime in February.

If you're mid-search, pausing for two months is a real cost. In September, 1.9 million Americans had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, 27.1% of everyone unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median unemployed person had been looking for 11.5 weeks. Nobody in a long search wants to add eight more.

So does hiring really stop between Thanksgiving and New Year's? The data says no. It slows, the slowdown is shorter than most people think, and fewer of your competitors are applying while it happens. Here's what the numbers show and a week-by-week plan for this holiday season.

Does hiring stop over the holidays?

No. It slows, especially in the last two weeks of December.

U.S. employers made about 3.9 million hires in December 2025 and 4.5 million in November, compared with 5.5 million in October and a 2025 monthly average of about 5.25 million, according to BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data that isn't seasonally adjusted. December is the low point of the year. It's still millions of people starting jobs.

Two details matter for your plan:

• Hires count start dates, not offers. An analysis of BLS data by HiredFolio found December hires run about 27% below an average month and were the lowest month in 19 of the 20 years from 2006 to 2025. But JOLTS counts a hire when the person joins payroll, so an offer accepted in mid-December with a January start shows up as a January hire.
• The jobs stay posted. About 6.1 million job openings were still on the books at the end of December 2025 (not seasonally adjusted). The same HiredFolio analysis of Indeed data found the stock of live job ads in December sits only about 2% below an average month. What drops is the flow of new ads.

The real dead zone is about two weeks

The slowdown isn't spread evenly across November and December. Using Indeed's daily postings index for the 2020–21 to 2025–26 seasons, HiredFolio found:

• In the week to December 15, new U.S. postings ran at 89% to 96% of their early-November level. That's close to normal.
• In the week between Christmas and New Year's, new postings fell to 54% to 63% of early November.
• New postings got back to their early-November level between January 11 and 13 in all six seasons.

In other words, most of November and the first half of December are workable. The week of December 28 is the one time to stop sending.

Fewer applicants, similar odds

Here's the part that surprises people. Job-tracking app Huntr analyzed nearly 2 million applications and found that applicant volume fell 12% below trend in December 2025. But 3.6% of December applications still reached an interview, level with the 2025 average of 3.5%. November did even better at 4.2%, while January had the lowest per-application interview rate of the year, 2.7%, as people sent the most applications per person that month.

Huntr's data covers its own users, not every job seeker, and it shows correlation, not cause. But it lines up with what career experts say. "If the majority of people do that, then you actually have more opportunity to stand out because there's less competition," Monster career expert Vicki Salemi told CNBC about job seekers who wait until January.

Seasonal hiring is up this year, and some of it may last

If you want extra income or a foot in the door, 2026's seasonal market is busier than last year's:

• Seasonal postings on Indeed were up about 10% from a year earlier as of September 30, and roughly 7% above 2019, Indeed Hiring Lab reported on October 15.
• More people are looking, too. Desktop searches for seasonal and holiday jobs on Indeed are up about 28% year over year, so apply early.
• Some roles may not end in January. Among a group of large, mostly retail employers, part-time labels rose from 38% to 49% of postings, while overtly seasonal labels fell from 34% to 20%. Indeed says that may mean some employers expect demand to hold into 2027.
• Big employers are still staffing up. Amazon said it plans to hire more than 300,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers, and UPS said it would hire 100,000 seasonal employees, CNBC reported.

Indeed's advice is simple: the biggest rise in seasonal postings typically happens between mid-September and mid-November, so start now.

Your holiday job search plan, week by week

Thanksgiving is November 26 this year and Christmas falls on a Friday. Here's how to use the stretch between now and mid-January.

Now to Thanksgiving: apply at full pace

This is still prime time. Prioritize recent postings, apply within a few days of a role going up, and send applications midweek. Huntr found Tuesday applications had the highest interview rate in 2025, and weekend applications ran about a third lower.

Thanksgiving to mid-December: finish what can finish

Interviews that start now have time to reach a decision before the break. When a recruiter schedules a call, ask, "What does the process look like between now and January?" If you're waiting on an answer, send your follow-up by about December 11. After that, your email waits behind two weeks of others.

December 14 to 23: apply, and reconnect

New postings start to fall, but most open roles are still live, so keep applying. This is also the easiest networking window of the year. Send short notes to former colleagues, a recruiter who liked you earlier in the year, or someone you met at an event, with a line on what you're looking for in the new year and no ask attached.

December 24 to January 3: prepare, don't send

This is the week to stop sending and start preparing:

• Update your résumé and a version for each type of role you target.
• List 15 to 20 target companies, with a person to contact at each.
• Draft your January follow-ups and put a send date on each.

A tool can carry some of that load. Twin-Seeker, for example, keeps your search on one Kanban pipeline, flags overdue roles and drafts follow-ups in your voice, so your January restart is already queued up.

January 4 onward: restart in stages

Send your drafted follow-ups from the second working day, spread over the week. Apply to what was posted over the break before the January rush, and expect full speed around the second week of January.

When it's fine to slow down

Rest is part of a long search, not a failure of it. If you need a break, take it during the week the data says is dead anyway, between Christmas and New Year's, and protect the first half of December. A lighter pace with targeted applications beats burning out and restarting from zero in January.

Key takeaways

• Hiring slows in November and December but doesn't stop: U.S. employers made about 3.9 million hires in December 2025 alone.
• The real dead zone is roughly the week between Christmas and New Year's; early December is close to normal.
• Fewer people apply: Huntr saw December applicant volume 12% below trend, with interview odds near the yearly average.
• Seasonal postings are up about 10% year over year, and more retail roles are part-time rather than seasonal.
• Apply through mid-December, follow up by about December 11, prepare during the last week and restart in stages in January.

FAQs

Is it worth applying for jobs in December?

Yes, especially in the first half of the month. In Huntr's 2025 data, 3.6% of December applications reached an interview, about the same as the yearly average of 3.5%, while applicant volume was 12% below trend.

Do companies hire between Thanksgiving and New Year's?

Yes. U.S. employers made about 4.5 million hires in November 2025 and 3.9 million in December, according to BLS JOLTS data. Many December offers also turn into January start dates.

When does hiring pick back up in January?

New postings typically recover by the second week of January. HiredFolio's analysis of Indeed data found U.S. new postings returned to early-November levels between January 11 and 13 in each of the last six seasons.

Should I follow up on an application during the holidays?

Yes, but time it. Send follow-ups by about mid-December, skip the week between Christmas and New Year's, and resume on the second working day of January.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: The Employment Situation, September 2026 (Oct 2, 2026)
• FRED: Long-term unemployed as a percent of total unemployed (LNS13025703)
• FRED: Median duration of unemployment (UEMPMED)
• FRED: JOLTS hires, total nonfarm, not seasonally adjusted (JTUHIL)
• FRED: JOLTS job openings, total nonfarm, not seasonally adjusted (JTUJOL)
• HiredFolio: Is December a bad time to job hunt? Data + 6-week plan (Oct 9, 2026)
• Huntr: The best time of year to look for a job, based on nearly 2 million applications
• Indeed Hiring Lab: Seasonal hiring is off to a fast start, with an eye toward 2027 (Oct 15, 2026)
• CNBC: As holiday shopping approaches, seasonal hiring gives "mixed signals," experts say (Oct 27, 2026)
• CNBC: Applying to jobs from Thanksgiving to New Year's isn't pointless, experts say (Nov 25, 2025)
• Kyle Mau on X: "We'll start hiring in January." (Oct 26, 2026)

Video

• Andrew LaCivita: How to Get Ahead in Your Job Search During the Holidays