A quick scroll of posts on LinkedIn will offer a sober­ing glimpse into how dif­fi­cult job searchers cur­rent­ly have it. From those who apply to hun­dreds of jobs over a few weeks, only not to be invit­ed to a sin­gle inter­view, to oth­ers who do advance through sev­er­al rounds of inter­views, only to then be ghost­ed by the com­pa­ny, attempt­ing to secure a new job or advance your career can be absolute­ly daunt­ing.

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Unless you’re next in line to take over the fam­i­ly busi­ness, there’s no sure­fire way to guar­an­tee that job offer. Even if you do every­thing right, such as tweak­ing your resume to fit the job descrip­tion and send­ing those “thank you” emails after the inter­view, there are many oth­er job seek­ers vying for the same posi­tion. Per the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, as of July 2024, there were 5.6 mil­lion peo­ple not in the labor force look­ing for a job. This is in addi­tion to those who cur­rent­ly do have a job, but are look­ing to tran­si­tion else­where.

Still, it’s not impos­si­ble; though, as it turns out, search­ing for a job might be bet­ter at cer­tain times than oth­ers. While know­ing where to look is cer­tain­ly key — with tons of job boards and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able — job seek­ers also need to know when to look for a job, as the time of year can great­ly impact their job prospects.

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For many peo­ple, as they watch the ball drop at Times Square on New Year’s Eve, they’re think­ing about their res­o­lu­tions and what they’d like to accom­plish in the next 12 months. Among the goals of fit­ness, trav­el, and sav­ing mon­ey is find­ing a new and bet­ter job, like­ly a posi­tion that offers stronger work-life bal­ance and finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty (though in the mean­time, find­ing this one thing at work can make one hap­pi­er in their cur­rent posi­tion).

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Mak­ing such a res­o­lu­tion works out per­fect­ly, as most employ­ers post their high­est num­ber of job open­ings from the sec­ond week of Jan­u­ary through Feb­ru­ary. There are a few rea­sons for this being the case. Usu­al­ly, year­ly bud­gets — includ­ing the total funds avail­able for new hires — are final­ized in the fall, which means com­pa­nies are ready to start inter­view­ing can­di­dates and mak­ing offers after the hol­i­days. Addi­tion­al­ly, Decem­ber is often the month of year­ly per­for­mance reviews. If a work­er does­n’t receive the feed­back or raise they were expect­ing, they may leave, thus putting their job up for grabs in Jan­u­ary.

“They need new peo­ple [in the new year],” Marc Cenedel­la, founder of job search site Lad­ders and resume writ­ing site Leet Resumes, told USA Today. “So there’s a whole slew of new job req­ui­si­tions, mak­ing this one of the peak times of the year for new hir­ing activ­i­ty.”

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While the first few months of the year may be ide­al for job hunt­ing, all hope isn’t lost if you don’t receive an offer by the end of Feb­ru­ary. Most com­pa­nies con­tin­ue to hire through­out the year, though post­ings might not be as fre­quent, and job appli­cants may be up against more com­pe­ti­tion. Still, if you’re patient, there’s anoth­er ide­al time to pick up the pace when it comes to send­ing out resumes: the fall.

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Just as com­pa­nies have a “back to work” mind­set in Jan­u­ary fol­low­ing the hol­i­days (here’s how to bud­get to stay out of debt after the hol­i­days, by the way), the same holds true for Sep­tem­ber after the sum­mer. From June through August, hir­ing man­agers and recruiters alike take vaca­tions and enjoy short­ened work­weeks just like the rest of us, which means they’re less like­ly to sched­ule many job inter­views — or even post that many jobs — dur­ing that time due to lack of avail­abil­i­ty on their end. Yet post-Labor Day, it’s all hands on deck once again to secure fresh tal­ent. Then, start­ing around Thanks­giv­ing, job post­ings will again slow down, with the cycle pick­ing up once again in Jan­u­ary.