If you think waiting till January to start or reignite your job search is the right strategy, nothing could be further from the truth.
This is a really good window, and I'm about to explain why.
People are hiring now.
They want people in their teams and they want to know they've got good people coming in January because they've got gaps in their teams right now.
They're posting their jobs, and they're going through hiring processes.
And what we always tend to see in the last two weeks of December prior to Christmas is a lot of job offers happening because they don't want to carry it into the new year.
If you switch off now, you're losing that opportunity for what becomes a bit of a rush hire process to help get roles over the line and get people enrolled quickly.
Equally, it takes eight to 10 weeks typically to go from posting a job to a job offer.
If they decide to wait till January, it's gonna be March or April time before they've got someone in.
And if they know they have a gap right now and a budget to spend, they'll spend it before the year goes.
The January Job Delay
Let's talk about 2026 and January, so you've got a sense of what happened.
January typically is when a lot of new roles get published.
You get a lot of companies who have new budgets, they've been dealing with a problem, they come in with a fresh perspective and think, we've got to hire and fix this challenge.
And for many, many years that has been the case.
But last year we saw a real dip in January compared to what we'd see at any other time.
And that peak actually came in March.
It's not that it didn't happen, it's that it was late.
And the reasoning for that is because companies are doing a tech first, human second approach at the minute.
They ask, can we solve this problem with technology?
Part of it we can, part of it we can't.
And then they hire for the skills where they know they need the humans, not the tech.
It's delaying things a little bit.
And we saw the same from September to October as well.
Typically don't think that this wave of jobs is gonna come in January, because if it's anything like last year, it's gonna be the same.
It'll be delaying a little bit longer.
The Redundancy Ripple Effect
Then we've got the unfortunate situation that in Q4 of this year, so far there have been lots of redundancies.
We've had NatWest, Microsoft, Barclays, and Royal Mail to name a few.
And that's only the big organisations.
Across smaller organisations, they all are compounding.
And we've seen the biggest spike in redundancies in October compared to what we've seen in any other month this calendar year.
Now, the majority of those people have been fortunate enough to get a large payout and they will take this opportunity to think, great, I'm gonna take a break.
I'm gonna start the job search in January and enjoy my Christmas.
And they should do that.
I'm not trying to discourage that thought process.
But what that means then is we're gonna have a wave of new people coming into the market in January, meaning there's a lot more competition that you're up against.
And these people are talented individuals who will be ready to hit the market when that comes along.
Bear that in mind when you're thinking about switching off right now, because you could actually have an offer before that rush hits.
The Perfect Storm of Competition
The next element is the New Year, New Career vibe that people have.
You know, they've had their New Year's Eve party, they wake up on New Year's Day and they're dreading going back to work.
And it's made them realise, my New Year's resolution is to get a new job and I'm gonna thrive in my career this year.
And I'm all for that.
It's amazing, but again, it's another wave of talented, experienced people who hit the market in January.
You've got this perfect storm.
You've got less jobs that are hitting the market in January compared to what we typically have.
Then you have this large wave of redundancies that have happened, which will mean all of those people will hit the market at the same time.
And then finally, these new year, new career people all hit the market at the same time.
You end up in this scenario where you have less jobs and more competition.
It's gonna get even harder to get over the line to get interviews and ultimately get job offers.
The time is now.
Key Takeaways
- Companies want gaps filled now before the end of the year, leading to a rush hire process and plenty of December job offers.
- The traditional January job surge is being delayed by a "tech first, human second" hiring approach.
- Q4 redundancies and "new year, new career" resolutions will create a perfect storm of massive competition in January, so the time to start is right now.
Good luck with your job searches this week, and if you’d like to learn how I can help you further, book a free, no-obligation 30-minute consultation with me and tell me your story.
Let’s see if I can help you shift the dial and secure your new career.
