Will this be the busiest recruitment day of the year 2011?

Yes, at least according to a 2007 survey of 1,500 UK employees, by jobboard Jobsite. The majority of employees said they would begin their hunt on the first Monday of the New Year. In fact 42 per cent of people were planning to look for a new job in January. So today, Monday 3 January 2011, will be the busiest day and your inbox will be flooded by CV’s. Are you prepared?

So I turned to Monster in The Netherlands (the leading jobsite here) for actual figures and asked them the question; ‘Was the first Monday in 2010 the busiest recruitment day?’. They looked into their web statistics and came with the following results:

1. We see on the first Monday of 2010 a major increase in visitor numbers compared to the day before. Many people are intending to enter the New Year to familiarize themselves on the labor market for another job.
2. Even more striking is the average visit length (over 10 minutes) on the first Monday of 2010: throughout 2010 the average visit length is not as high.
3. Yet the first Monday of the Year 2010 was not the busiest day of the year. We see in the months of the first and fourth quarter of 2010 that there were even busier days, in terms of visitors at Monsterboard.nl. What is striking is that these days on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday fall. People experience a new week as a New Year, meaning a fresh start with good intentions and new opportunities on the labor market.
4. What we perhaps can make from the fact that the average visit length on the first Monday of the year 2010 has reached such a high level, is that people in the New Year more seriously want a job orientation and more effort to do and so their good intentions (of finding a new, different job) seriously.
5. The day with the highest number of visitors in 2010 Monsterboard.nl was Wednesday, November 17. A good explanation, other than seeing a general increase in visits and visitors in the second half of 2010, we don’t have.

The second most popular day, according to the same survey from Jobsite UK, to start the job search is 31 January, when many employees will receive their first pay cheque. More than half of workers said they thought the New Year was an ideal time for a new start. More than half of those surveyed (61%) said they would spend more than two hours a day on their New Year job hunt, while 41% confessed they would search for vacancies while at work.

Keith Potts, CEO of Jobsite, said: “With time off over Christmas to reflect on your current job situation it’s perhaps unsurprising that the first Monday back in the office sends most people looking for something more fulfilling.”

What are your internet and ATS statistics telling? Let us know!

Bytheway, happy recruiting and all the best wishes for 2011!