Do Companies Hire in December? What the Hiring Data Shows (and How to Use It)

Quick answer: Yes, companies hire in December, just less than in the fall. U.S. employers made 3.9 million hires in December 2025 and still had 6.1 million open jobs at the end of the month, according to not seasonally adjusted BLS data (BLS JOLTS via FRED). Hires fall harder than openings because start dates slip into January, while applications drop even faster. So applying in late November and early December usually means fewer competing candidates for jobs that are still open.

This guide is for anyone deciding whether to keep applying through the holidays or wait for January. If you've been applying for months with little to show for it, read why is it so hard to find a job first. This post covers timing: what the hiring data shows for November, December and January, which industries keep hiring, and a week-by-week plan for the 2026 holiday season.

Do companies hire in December? What the data shows

The best public data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). It counts hires (people who started a job that month) and openings (jobs posted and ready to fill on the last business day of the month). The seasonally adjusted figures in the headlines smooth out the holidays, so the table below uses the not seasonally adjusted series, which show what actually happened each month. Figures are in thousands, as published on FRED and retrieved October 25, 2026.

Season	October hires	November hires	December hires	January hires	December openings
2023-24	6,113	4,998	4,072	5,464	7,947
2024-25	5,530	4,668	3,873	5,125	6,798
2025-26	5,465	4,451	3,879	5,256	6,088

Sources: Hires, total nonfarm (JTUHIL) and Job openings, total nonfarm (JTUJOL), BLS via FRED.

Three things stand out:

1. December is the slowest month for hires. It was the lowest month of both 2024 and 2025. In December 2025, hires were about 29% below October.
2. Openings fall much less. Openings at the end of December 2025 were about 19% below October. Millions of roles are still open when the holidays start.
3. January bounces back. Hires rose from 3.9 million in December 2025 to 5.3 million in January 2026.

Why hires drop more than openings

A JOLTS hire is counted when the person starts work, not when the offer is made. Someone who interviews in early December and accepts an offer on December 18 usually starts in January, and is counted as a January hire. Add holiday time off for interviewers, year-end approvals and fewer working days, and you get the pattern above: December starts are low, but the hiring work that fills January is still happening. That is the main reason December hiring looks weaker than it is for a job seeker.

Do companies stop hiring at the end of the year?

Some do. A company that missed its targets may freeze open roles until the new budget is approved, and some teams simply pause until January. But the data doesn't show a broad shutdown: about 3.9 million people started new jobs in December 2025 alone. The practical move is to ask, not guess. On a recruiter call, ask "Is this role budgeted for this year, or does it carry into the new year?" and "Do you expect to make an offer before the holidays?"

Which industries still hire in December?

Hiring slows almost everywhere, but not evenly. Here are the not seasonally adjusted hires for a few sectors where many of our readers apply (thousands).

Industry	Oct 2025	Nov 2025	Dec 2025	Jan 2026	Dec vs Oct
All nonfarm employers	5,465	4,451	3,879	5,256	-29%
Professional and business services	1,036	831	700	1,036	-32%
Health care and social assistance	814	566	584	788	-28%
Financial activities	198	130	163	161	-18%
Information (includes software publishing and telecom)	75	67	61	96	-19%

Sources: BLS JOLTS via FRED: professional and business services, health care and social assistance, financial activities, information.

How to read it:

• Financial activities and information held up better than average in December 2025, and financial activities actually hired more people in December than in November. If you work in finance, insurance, software or telecom, December isn't a dead month.
• Health care hiring dips but never stops. Hospitals and clinics staff around the clock. Health care was also the steadiest source of job growth in the September 2026 jobs report (+17,000), even as total payrolls rose by only 29,000.
• Professional and business services fell the most, but openings in that sector were still about 1.1 million at the end of December 2025 (JTU540099JOL). Consulting, accounting, marketing and many corporate roles sit here, and January is when they restart.

Is it worth applying for jobs in December?

Usually, yes, because competition drops faster than demand.

• A University of Chicago Booth study of 66 million applications on technology-focused job boards found that applications fall about 30% in December compared with October, then jump about 60% in January (Chicago Booth, Davis and Samaniego de la Parra).
• The same research found that 54% of applications go to jobs posted in the past 96 hours. Fresh postings get crowded quickly, and that crowding is lighter when fewer people are applying.
• Indeed Hiring Lab reported that U.S. job searches were up to 31% higher in January 2026 than the early-December 2025 average, while job postings never rose above their early-December level in January (Indeed Hiring Lab, February 2026). In other words, January brings more job seekers, not more jobs.

Put those together and the case for December is simple: the roles open in December will mostly still be open in January, but in January you share them with far more applicants. People on Reddit say the same thing from experience. A thread in r/jobs titled "DONT stop applying for jobs in December" (r/jobs) and one in r/jobhunting calling December hiring "lumpy" rather than pointless (r/jobhunting) describe the same thing: fewer postings, slower replies, but real offers.

When December really is slow

Be realistic about the last two weeks of the year. Interviews scheduled for December 21 to January 1 often get moved, and replies to applications sent that week can wait until January. That doesn't mean the application was wasted. It means you should send your best applications earlier and use the last week for prep.

December or January: which is better?

Factor	Late November to mid-December	January
Hires that month	Lowest of the year	Rebounds strongly
Open roles	Still millions open	Similar to early December
Competing applicants	About 30% fewer than October	About 60% more than December
Response speed	Slower after mid-December	Faster once teams return
Best for	Getting into pipelines early, January start dates	Roles posted with new budgets

The best answer is both: apply in November and early December so you're already in interview loops when January hiring restarts, then add new postings as January budgets open.

Holiday hiring 2026: seasonal jobs vs professional roles

When people search "hiring for the holidays," they usually mean retail and warehouse seasonal work. That market is smaller this year:

• The National Retail Federation expects retailers to hire 325,000 to 375,000 seasonal workers for November and December 2026, in line with about 356,000 last year (NRF, October 15, 2026).
• Challenger, Gray & Christmas projects about 450,000 retail jobs added in the fourth quarter, after 461,500 in Q4 2025, which it calls the smallest seasonal gain since 2008 (Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 2026).

Seasonal work can be a sensible short-term income source while your main search runs. If you're weighing that, our guide to taking a bridge job while unemployed covers how to explain it later and how to protect time for applications. Just don't let a seasonal shift replace the professional search. The professional roles hiring in December are the ones that set up a January start.

The November-to-January job search calendar for 2026

Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, 2026 (BLS release calendar), and Christmas and New Year's Day both fall on Fridays. Here's how to plan around that.

Dates (2026-27)	What hiring teams are doing	What you should do
Oct 26 - Nov 20	Pushing to fill this year's open roles	Apply heavily. This is the last full stretch before the holidays
Nov 23 - 27 (Thanksgiving week)	Many out Wed-Fri	Send applications Monday and Tuesday. Prep for interviews
Nov 30 - Dec 11	Last push for interviews and offers before the break	Follow up on every open application. Ask to book next rounds before the break
Dec 14 - 18	Final rounds, some offers, early time off	Keep applying to fresh postings. Respond to recruiters the same day
Dec 21 - Jan 1	Mostly out	Light applying. Update your resume, tracker and target list
Jan 4 onward	Budgets reset, new roles posted	Apply to new postings in the first 48-96 hours. Follow up on December applications

A weekly routine that works through the holidays

1. Set a weekly application target you can keep. If you're not sure what's realistic, see how many jobs to apply to per day. A steady 25 to 40 tailored applications a week beats 100 in one week and nothing for three.
2. Prioritize postings less than a week old. Older postings are more likely to be filled, frozen or never real. Run anything suspicious through the free ghost job checker, or use our checklist for how to spot a ghost job.
3. Front-load the week. The Booth study found applications per posting are about 45% higher on Mondays and Tuesdays than on Fridays, so hiring teams see the most new applications early in the week. Get yours in early too, and use Fridays for follow-ups and prep.
4. Track every application and every recruiter contact. Holiday gaps make it easy to lose threads. A simple tracker with date applied, contact and next step is enough.
5. Plan your January list in December. Write down the 20 to 30 companies you want, so January 4 is spent applying, not researching.

How to get interviews booked before the holiday break

The biggest December risk isn't rejection. It's a process that stalls for three weeks. These steps keep it moving.

Ask about timing early

On the first recruiter call, ask: "What does the timeline look like, and will the team be interviewing through December?" If the answer is "we're trying to close before the holidays," make yourself easy to schedule.

Offer specific times

Instead of "I'm flexible," send three specific slots in the next five business days. Hiring managers with short weeks book the candidate who makes it easy.

Follow up before people leave

If you applied in mid-November and heard nothing, send a short follow-up in the first week of December, before out-of-office replies start. For wording, use our job application follow-up email templates. A December version can be this simple:

Hi [Name], I applied for the [Role] position on [date] and wanted to confirm my interest before the holidays. My experience with [one specific, relevant result] fits what the team is looking for. I'm available for a call any time this week or next.

Don't read silence as a no

Replies slow down in the second half of December. If a recruiter goes quiet after December 15, follow up once in the first week of January instead of assuming you've been rejected. If you're getting rejected within minutes at any time of year, that's a different problem, usually a knockout question or a filter, and rejected immediately after applying explains how to fix it.

December job search tips for new grads and visa holders

December graduates. Many employers fill entry-level roles with January start dates, so apply now rather than after graduation. Use your final-semester projects as resume bullets and list your graduation month clearly.

F-1 students on OPT. The unemployment clock doesn't pause for the holidays. A student on post-completion OPT can be unemployed for a total of 90 days, and SEVP can terminate the record after that (Study in the States, DHS). If your OPT starts in November or December, the slow weeks count against you, so keep applying and consider a qualifying role to bridge the gap.

Anyone who needs sponsorship. Fewer postings in December make targeting more important. Focus on employers with a filing history using the free H-1B sponsor companies list, and answer the sponsorship question honestly so you don't spend interviews on roles that end at the offer stage.

Holiday job search options compared: DIY, tools, or a done-for-you service

December is also when most people have the least time: travel, family and year-end work all compete with applications. Here's a fair look at the main ways to keep a search running.

Approach	How it works	Strengths	Trade-offs
Do it yourself	You find, tailor and submit every application	Full control, no cost	Hardest to keep up during the holidays
Organizer and resume tools (for example Teal, Careerflow)	Trackers, resume builders and keyword matching	Keeps you organized	You still submit every application
Autofill and job-matching tools (for example Simplify, Jobright)	Browser extensions and AI job matching that fill forms faster	Saves time per form	You still review and submit each one
Auto-apply bots (for example LazyApply, JobCopilot)	Software submits applications automatically	High volume	Less tailoring; some ATS forms and custom portals are harder for automation
Human application services (for example Scale.jobs, ResumeToJobs)	People submit tailored applications for you	Applications keep going while you're away	Paid; you need to set clear targets

ResumeToJobs uses credits, not a subscription: $0.50 per application credit, where one credit is one tailored application submitted for you, with 10% off at 500 credits ($225). You pick the target roles, and the applications keep going through Thanksgiving and the December break. See pricing for current packs.

The bottom line

Companies do hire in December. U.S. employers made about 3.9 million hires in December 2025 and still had about 6.1 million openings when the month ended. Hires fall more than openings because start dates move into January, and applicants pull back faster than employers do. That makes late November and early December one of the better times to be in a hiring pipeline. Apply heavily before Thanksgiving, push for interviews before mid-December, use the last week of the year to prepare, and start January already in process instead of competing with the January rush. If your search has been dragging on, how long a job search takes can help you plan the next few months.