Press Release

Wall Street Journal: Looking For Work? Keep It Up Through the Holidays

Sunday, December 18, 2011

By LAUREN WEBER

Holiday spirits may be high, but December is no time to hit the pause button on a job search, experts say.

Al Peteroy, a senior consultant with Ambit Energy, talks to job seekers at the Occupy A Desk job fair in New York's Zuccotti Park, earlier this week.

Many job seekers take a break from the hunt in late November and December, figuring that employers are distracted by holiday parties, vacation plans, and end-of-year assignments like closing out the books, says Jane Trnka, executive director of the career development center at Rollins College's Crummer Graduate School of Business. In addition, some unemployed people simply want a respite from the often-demoralizing work of looking for a job.

But Ms. Trnka and others say the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's can be a is perhaps the most productive time of the year for a job search precisely because the competition declines so much.

...

Another reason to look now: Large companies often have "use it or lose it" hiring budgets they need to spend by the end of their fiscal year, which for many firms coincides with the calendar year. "We've had facilities [such as hospitals] call us and say, 'We have $100,000 to spend for recruitment and if we don't use it this year, we don't get it next year,'" explains Sean Milius, CEO of Management Recruiters of Colorado, a health-care focused affiliate of MRINetwork. Money might go toward signing bonuses and relocation packages, Mr. Milius says.

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