Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership

Surprisingly, August had the most jobseekers, while July and June ranked #3 and #4. Yes, it’s true. Over the last 12 months, if you wanted to recruit during the time period that had the largest pool of unemployed US jobseekers, you would have recruited during the summer months (BLS).

Timing Your Recruiting Gives You A Competitive Advantage

For years, I have been writing about the importance of timing in recruiting and how correctly timing it can dramatically improve your recruiting results. This “right time strategy” emphasizes recruiting when the labor supply is above average in size and/or when the recruiting competition for the available talent is low. This strategy is especially effective for lesser-known companies that simply can’t easily compete when the recruiting giants in their industry are highly active in the talent marketplace. 

So smart recruiters realize that the modern recruiting marketplace is constantly changing. So, rather than assuming the old axiom that “recruiting is dead during the summer months” is still true. Instead, the strategy emphasizes following the current data and targeting your recruiting during the specific months when the jobseeker pool is the largest. During the last year, those months were August, February, July, and June.

The Many Advantages Of Summertime Recruiting

There are many factors that make summertime recruiting an effective strategy. Those benefits are listed below (in descending order of impact).

The supply of available candidates is highest during summer – the size of the available jobseeker pool varies dramatically from month to month. But it is surprising to most that 3 out of the top 4 largest jobseeker talent pools occurred during the summer months. Past data also suggests that you should be cautious about recruiting during January and September because the recruiting competition has reached its highest during these two months.

Corporate recruiting teams are less active during the summer – because of the significant recruiting budget cuts and the intense recruiting competition that occurred throughout this past year. Many hiring managers were exhausted by the end of May. Coupled with the fact that most corporate recruiting typically slows down during the summer because of overlapping vacations, this means that this summer, many lesser-known companies will experience a positive combination of a large jobseeker supply and fewer companies trying to recruit each available jobseeker. And that combination makes this summer an ideal time for lesser-known companies to recruit. 

A wave of recent grads will be actively looking this summer – after a post-graduation pause. This summer, there will be a flood of recent high school and college graduates who will be entering the job market. And that will mean that there will be a surge in the supply of grad talent for both regular and professional entry-level jobs.

Many who are relocating are doing it during the summer – many workers who decide to physically relocate to another region will do it during the summer months. If your open job is physically located in an area where many are relocating, summer will be an ideal time to recruit. 

Continuing layoffs will increase the jobseeker supply – the continuing wave of layoffs and anxiety in both the government and the corporate world will continue to increase the supply of experienced, high-quality talent who will be willing to consider a new job.

Potential candidates can use their summer vacation time for their job search – during this and every other year. Potential candidates will be able to use their company’s summer slowdown and/or vacation time to search for a new job and to attend interviews.

The absence of scheduled career events decreases the recruiting competition – every summer, there are many fewer scheduled career events. And that means that the lesser-known companies that don’t rely on them won’t be negatively impacted by their absence.

Outdoor work jobs are more attractive during the summer – because the jobs where you work outside are simply more attractive during the sunny months of summer. Companies that are recruiting for these types of jobs will experience much higher application and job acceptance rates.

Summer is the ideal time to attract teachers who want to change their profession – because the teaching profession is currently under attack. Currently, a whopping 55% of educators are considering leaving the profession. Because teachers are not working during the summer, summer is an ideal time to recruit them for jobs outside of education.

Final Thoughts

Smart recruiting leaders should see this summer as an opportunity to avoid the typical mid-year summer recruiting slowdown. Instead, turn targeted summer recruiting into a talent opportunity to gain a competitive advantage that will eventually improve their recruiting results. 

Thanks for reading.