Millions of Americans spend several hours each day on the job hunt. But what time of day and on which days of the week are most people searching? And when should recruiters and employers try to get in front of them over social media or through job advertising?
At the job site Indeed, we have a view into hundreds of millions of job searches and when they happen. We recently mined the data for searches conducted in the US in 2016. Here’s what we found:
- Job searches peak at midday, track lower during commuting hours and then pick up after dinner time. Searches are highest Monday through Wednesday. The peak hour for the entire week is 11am-12pm Tuesday.
- Job seekers tend to take the weekend off. Searches are low from Thursday evening through most of the weekend. But, by Sunday evening, with the workweek looming, searches pick up again, especially for job seekers with at least a four-year college degree. It seems that not everyone is watching Game of Thrones at 10 pm Sunday.
- Having a job means you’re less likely to look for a new one during the workday. Employed people’s peak search period is in the evening, specifically from 7-10pm Monday through Wednesday. By contrast, the unemployed do most of their searching during the afternoon and take the evening off.
It’s clear from the results that the beginning of the week is the busiest time for the job search. Tuesday is the busiest and activity is noticeably lower in the second half of the week. But as the weekend approaches, looking for a job doesn’t appear to be on the minds of many. The drop between Thursday and Friday is sharp and the typical evening spike is absent Friday as most job seekers cut loose for the weekend.
The search for new employment is noticeably less intense on the weekend, but interestingly, the hunt starts up again on Sunday night. Saturday is easily the least popular day for job seekers. Activity is flat throughout the day and at a much lower level than on weekdays. Sunday searches start just as slowly but rise throughout the afternoon before peaking around 9 pm.
To take one step further, we looked for patterns among employed workers and unemployed workers, as identified by our resume data.
We found that people with jobs generally have to work during the day and can’t spend their time electronically pounding the pavement. Thus, the peak search time for employed job seekers is in the evening early in the workweek—from 7-10pm Monday through Wednesday. Searching is lower from Thursday evening through the weekend but rises sharply between 6-9pm Sunday night.
Meanwhile, unemployed people look for work midday, so in a sense, the unemployed job seeker does have a job: looking for work!
Those without a job who are looking for a job tend to keep regular working hours, doing nearly all their hunting 10am-4pm Monday through Thursday.
Activity for this group shows no evening peaks on weekdays and no Sunday night uptick, but they sure are busy in the middle of the day. Among the unemployed, the shares of lunchtime job searches are about 50% higher than for people with a job.
With these insights, we hope employers and recruiters can try and make the most of highlighting their job postings to candidates. If the timing is right, it just may help them find a great hire.
