The last 3 years Google Trends shows a huge spike in searches for the keyword “jobs” in late December. From the graph it looks like this jump comes after the holiday gift giving search traffic bottoms out. In fact, it looks like the increase in job search traffic starts on December 26th (this is just a guess concocted from comparing this graph to some graphs of holiday related search traffic) and peaks just a few days into January. So for about a week, there is an extremely sharp jump in search traffic for jobs, then it levels off throughout the year. There also appears to be a significant, but relatively steady drop in job search traffic during the Fall, before the sharp upward spike happens again just after Christmas. Can anybody explain this?
One explanation that I considered is that people might increasingly look for part-time jobs during the holiday, or kids home from college might look for a job to fill up their free time. Because the search traffic doesn’t start to increase until after Christmas, I’d say these explanations are improbably.
Other explanations that I think have more merit:
Any other theories? How can recruiters take advantage of this spike in search traffic? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
Tags: google, job search, trends
Not quite ready for an entry-level job? There are still tons of internships available! Every day you'll find a new company that is still hiring interns at One Day, One Internship.
Want to look back further? Visit our job archives, try a search, or use the tag cloud below.
California design education engineering entry-level jobs finance holiday Illinois information technology international job search marketing nationwide New York non-profit research sales software development Texas Washington DC
Want more insight on entry-level job search? Visit our job search blog or our archive of job search tips.
Can't find what you're looking for on One Day, One Job? Send us a request. In the meantime, try an Indeed search.
I think that people tend to use the Calendar Year as a benchmark (rather than a fiscal year). At a benchmark, people tend to evaluate (and re-evaluate) their lives, so it makes sense that someone would seek newer, better, more exciting jobs during this time.