If you work in staffing in the skilled trades, you know that recruiting is subject to seasonal trends.
As in any industry, hiring in the skilled trades experiences peaks and dips due to holiday schedules, budget cycles, and business needs. Because these trends happen annually, savvy job hunters (and recruiters) can anticipate them—and adjust their strategies accordingly.
To help candidates and HR professionals to understand and navigate the annual recruitment calendar, we created this guide.
Why do recruitment levels fluctuate throughout the year?
A range of factors affect recruitment levels in the skilled workforce throughout the year, including seasonality, budgeting, and holidays.
The seasonality of some skilled jobs plays a role in the changes. For industries such as construction that take place primarily outdoors, hiring tends to happen when the weather begins to warm up in the spring, and staffing winds back down in the fall as projects wrap up.
The budget cycle is also a factor. Companies typically budget for new employees at the beginning of the fiscal year, meaning that a significant portion of hiring may happen around the start of the year to ensure that the new hires are included in financial plans.
Finally, holidays affect hiring because recruiters and hiring managers are often away during these periods and are unavailable to make decisions. July, for example, tends to be a low time for hiring, primarily because so many people go on vacation in the middle of the summer. Similarly, December is a slow time for recruitment due to the winter holidays.
What are typical recruitment trends in the skilled trades?
Like other fields, annual staffing trends in the skilled trades follow a consistent pattern year to year.
Of course, the schedules vary across industries and companies—mining companies have different needs than oil and gas companies, for example. Plus, even within industries, organizations at different stages of development will have different hiring requirements at different times.
However, we can observe a few overall recruitment trends corresponding with each quarter.
Q1: January – March
Because Q1 is the beginning of the fiscal year for many companies, budgets tend to be refreshed and there is more money available to hire new employees. With most people at HR departments and staffing agencies back in the office after the holidays, hiring also tends to happen more quickly.
On the candidate side, more workers also tend to be job hunting at this time of year. Coming out of the holidays, many candidates are eager to start their year off right by snapping up a new job.
Q2: April – June
Springtime in recruitment is largely known as new grad season. Most post-secondary programs in the skilled trades wrap up from April to June, so a new crop of workers is out job hunting during this period. And because of the shortage of skilled workers entering the workforce, newly trained graduates are always in high demand.
As we noted earlier, spring is also the hiring period for seasonal, outdoor industries. For candidates looking to get their foot in the door in the fields of construction, landscaping, forestry, farming, solar and wind installation, or surveying, April is the ideal time to begin your job search in earnest. Even in industries that operate all year—such as mining or energy—there is often a hiring push in the spring for outdoor roles that run through the summer and fall.
Q3: July – September
Across sectors, summer is known for being a slow time for recruitment. As staffing teams and hiring managers go on vacation, the pace of interviews, approvals, and paperwork all decrease, meaning that nothing happens in a hurry.
However, there are a few advantages for job hunters at this time of year. For one thing, you can expect competition for roles to be lower, so if a company needs someone urgently, you have a better chance of getting the role. The slower period also gives hiring managers an opportunity to spend more time looking at your application in detail.
If you don’t mind a slower pace, summer can still be a fruitful time for both recruitment and job searching. The key is to adjust your expectations and be prepared for email replies to take a little longer than usual.
Q4: October – December
Hiring tends to pick up again in September and October. With recruiters back from summer vacation, staffing kicks into high gear to get open roles filled before the winter holidays.
By Q4, many companies may also have a better understanding of the needs of the company than they did at the beginning of the fiscal year. They may be looking to use up budgets, or to staff roles in time to be included in the planning for the budget of the upcoming year.
If you’re a candidate who took a break from job hunting through the summer, fall is a great time to hop back into the ring. You can expect opportunities to be abundant, and if you have skilled trades experience, you will likely find your abilities to be in high demand.
The bottom line
Although every industry is different, hiring in the skilled workforce tends to follow seasonal trends. Expect a big hiring push from January to March, recruitment for outdoor roles and new grads in the spring, a brief lull in the summer, and a renewed push in the fall.
For both recruiters and job seekers, understanding these annual shifts can be key to a successful hiring process. Happy hunting!
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