Wasn’t it great having time off for the holidays? So great, you may have actually returned to work in a good mood.
But now that you’ve gotten through all the “Happy New Year’s” to colleagues and sat through 12 head-banging meetings on Monday and Tuesday, it dawns on you: Just like last year, you still want a new job.
If you’re like a lot of people, you may just start looking online for one today.
For the past three years, the first Wednesday after New Year’s Day has been the highest job-search day on Monster.com, a jobs site that sees 600,000 new resumes posted a month in the United States alone.
How high? About 70% more searches than average.
The spike isn’t necessarily surprising. “People know it’s a new slate. It’s a new year. A new page. Things feel fresh. And they think, ‘This is the year that I’m going to find a new job,'” said Vicki Salemi, a career expert at Monster and a former corporate recruiter.
In fact, at least half of the top 10 highest job search days for the year fall in January for Monster. And typically January is the busiest month for other job search sites, such as Glassdoor.
But there may be many in 2016. A new Glassdoor survey has found that 45% of U.S. adults report that they are currently searching or plan to search for a new job in the next 12 months.
Some people may be tempted to job search during work hours. Monster data show that searches start on the busiest day of the year at 11 am ET and go through 11 pm.
While not advisable, if you really can’t wait to do so until you get home, at least reduce the risk of getting caught by only perusing job listings on your personal laptop or smartphone, not one owned by the company.
