The Holiday Hiring Freeze

The holiday season is here, and if you're like many job seekers, you may have heard that companies simply don't hire heavily – if at all – during this period. Some go as far as to refer to it as the Holiday Hiring Freeze, suggesting explicit direction from management to pause hiring. Is the trend the real deal or just an idle fear? And how is this season in particular?

The Theory

According to the oft-shared conventional wisdom, companies don't hire much, or perhaps at all, towards the end of the calendar year for a variety of reasons. The belief is that HR slows hiring as quarterly hiring budgets and quotas have already been met. Meanwhile, company employees and job-seekers alike are said to be more likely to slow down the interview and application process in favor of more time with family and friends. Together, this is supposed to set January up as the ideal month to look for a job, with fresh budgets, candidates, and opportunities continuing into spring.

The Reality

According to statistics gathered by Namely, there's some truth to the concept, but not as much as you might think. It's true that December is the lowest hiring month for the year, with only 6.07% of hires for the year.  It's also true that January does experience a rebound, jumping up to 9.52%.

However, this trend doesn't have quite the staying power suggested by the theory, as the second-lowest hiring month of the year follows in February (6.96%) before the numbers slowly climb upward again in the subsequent months. The actual peak of hiring doesn't come until June (9.75%), before dipping and staying relatively constant through October (about 9%). November isn't particularly low either at 7.99%, which puts it between April and May levels.

While these differences are significant, they hardly paint a picture of a job search that becomes futile because of any given season. If hiring were even throughout the year, each month would have 8.33% of hires. Of all the months of the year, only February and December fall more than 1% below that mark.

The Hiring Freeze of 2022

The holidays themselves might not be the cause, but the general belief in the concept may be providing a level of acceptance that makes companies more comfortable talking about hiring freezes that are happening anyway. Attribute it to what you will – the tech hiring freeze of 2022 is upon us.

As of November, a host of large players in the tech sector have recently taken the opportunity to announce such freezes or cut-downs, with at least some of them appearing likely to persist well beyond the start of the calendar year. The New York Times reported that Amazon has been chilly in its assessments of the situation, warning investors that this quarter could represent the slowest pace of revenue growth in twenty years. To name just a few others, Meta said they expected their number of employees to remain roughly the same, Microsoft predicted “minimal” new hires, and Alphabet stated that they expected to hire less than half of the number of new hires from the previous quarter.

What To Do?

Seasonal or not, the current trend in the tech sector could be to slow or halt hiring, but this doesn't mean job-seekers should stop trying altogether. For example, if Meta plans to keep its workforce roughly even as reported, one would expect at least some hiring to occur to cover the usual job turnover. At the end of the day, any company advertising a position can hardly fault anyone who chooses to submit an application.

Still, if you find the freezes too cold for your liking, you might want to take advantage of any time available during the holiday season to do a little networking, tailor your resume, or try working with a recruiter. As you do so, don't overlook holiday jobs or temp jobs. Seasonal jobs can not only help you get through the winter but may even provide opportunities for longer-lasting employment.

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