Is it worth doing business development during the holidays?

Yes, especially in November and the first half of December. Managers are still working and fewer recruiters are calling. Save the last two weeks of December for confirming offers and planning January.

Do candidates look for jobs over the holidays?

Less around Christmas, more in January. Indeed Hiring Lab found job searches fell 34% from December 1 to Christmas Day in 2023, then rebounded by the end of January (Hiring Lab). Line up candidates before mid-December and present them in the first week of January.

How do I handle a candidate waiting for a year-end bonus?

Ask about the bonus on the first call: when it pays, how much, and whether it's guaranteed. Then plan the start date after the payout or discuss a sign-on bonus with the hiring manager well before the offer stage.

Blog › Business Development

Recruiting During the Holidays: November and December Are the Agency Recruiter's Sleeper Season

October 30, 2026 · 9 min read · For agency recruiters

Many agency desks ease off after Halloween and plan to "hit it hard in January." That leaves eight weeks when hiring managers are still at their desks, still holding open reqs, and hearing from fewer recruiters than at any other time of year.

The short version

Hiring managers don't vanish in November and December; many of your competitors do, which makes your call easier to take.
Year-end open reqs with January start dates are decided in late November and early December, not in January.
Candidate job searching drops sharply around Christmas and surges in January, so line up candidates before mid-December and be first in line in the new year.
Ask every candidate about year-end bonus timing on the first call and build the start date around it, before the offer stage.
Skip the holiday-themed email blast; a specific, useful call beats a seasonal greeting every time.

Why the holidays are underrated for agency BD

The usual story is that nothing happens between Thanksgiving and New Year's. For agency business development, the opposite is often true, for four reasons:

Managers are at their desks. Outside a few specific days, most hiring managers work through November and much of December. They are often catching up on planning and reviews, with fewer meetings than in the fall.
Competitors coast. A lot of recruiters slow down, push BD to January, and spend December chasing the last placements of the year. The manager who got eight agency calls a week in October may get two.
Year-end reqs are stuck. A role that's been open since September and still isn't filled is now a problem with a deadline. The manager wants the person in a seat when the new year starts, and the ads that have run longest are the clearest signal.
Next year is being planned. Q4 is when many teams lock headcount for the coming year, so the conversation you start now is about January's reqs as well as today's. There's more on that in why Q4 is budget season.

None of this means pushing harder. It means the same disciplined calls you'd make in October, made while fewer people are making them.

What the candidate side actually looks like

Candidates behave differently from managers over the holidays, and the job-search numbers are clear on it. Indeed's Hiring Lab found job searches fell 34% between December 1 and Christmas Day in the 2023 holiday season, and by the end of January search volume had rebounded to 13% above the December 1 level (Indeed Hiring Lab, Feb. 2024). The pattern held this year: Hiring Lab reported job searches up to 31% higher in January 2026 than the early-December 2025 average, while job postings never rose above their early-December level at any point that January (Indeed Hiring Lab, Feb. 2026).

Three practical consequences for an agency desk:

Line up your candidates before mid-December. Active searching fades in the second half of the month. The people you've already spoken with will still take your call; new applicants slow to a trickle.
Holiday downtime is reflection time. Passive candidates who are not searching may still be thinking about next year, which makes a specific, low-pressure call in early December well-timed. That's a practitioner observation, not a statistic.
January is crowded on the candidate side. If searches jump while postings stay flat, the manager with an open role in January will be flooded with applicants. Your value is a short, vetted slate, not volume. Have it ready in December so it lands the first week back.

Bonus timing: the deal-killer you can see coming

Many candidates won't leave before a year-end or annual bonus pays out, and they often don't mention it until the offer stage, when it can sink a start date. Get ahead of it on the first call:

Ask directly: "Do you have a bonus coming? When is it paid, roughly what is it worth, and is it guaranteed or discretionary?"
Ask what they need to stay whole: some will wait for the payout and start after; others will move now if the new employer covers it.
Tell the hiring manager in November, not at the offer. "My strongest candidate's bonus pays the second week of February. Either we target a start right after, or we talk about a sign-on to cover it." A manager who hears this early plans for it; one who hears it at the offer feels ambushed.
Watch the resignation window. A candidate who resigns right after a bonus or over the holidays is ripe for a counteroffer. Prepare them before they resign; see keeping placements from collapsing at the counteroffer.

For accounting roles, bonus timing collides with busy season. A tax accountant who isn't seated before the new year often won't move until busy season ends, so December is effectively the deadline for firms that need help this season.

The holiday BD calendar, week by week (Nov. 2, 2026 to Jan. 5, 2027)

Dates for this season. Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26; Christmas and New Year's Day both fall on Fridays.

Week of Nov. 2Full BD week. Call managers whose ads have been open since September or earlier; ask whether the role must be filled by year-end and what happens to the budget if it isn't.

Week of Nov. 9Start the January conversation: "Who do you need to start in January?" Ask about next year's headcount while it's being decided.

Week of Nov. 16Best week of the month for interviews. Push to get first rounds booked before Thanksgiving, or they slip to December.

Thanksgiving week (Nov. 23)Monday and Tuesday are normal working days for most managers; call then. Treat Wednesday as light and Thursday and Friday as off. Use the quiet time to update your notes.

Week of Nov. 30Managers come back with year-end on their minds. Present candidates now and push for final rounds before mid-December. Market a strong candidate to managers who could use them.

Week of Dec. 7Close offers. Confirm start dates, bonus timing and notice periods in writing. Begin planning your January target list.

Week of Dec. 14Last full week for most decisions. Manager calls still work, especially early in the day. Candidates start drifting toward vacation.

Week of Dec. 21Expect vacations. Keep calls short and only where you have something specific: an accepted offer to confirm, a final interview, or a candidate whose situation changed.

Week of Dec. 28Quiet, but managers who are in are often catching up alone, with clean calendars. A brief, specific call can land well. Finalize your Q1 list.

Jan. 4 to 5, 2027First business days of the year. Call the managers you flagged in December first, with candidates ready, before the January applicant surge buries their inbox.

The early-December call

Short, specific, and about their timeline. The fictional example is a controller with a staff accountant ad that's been up since September.

YouHi Teresa, it's Alex Byrne with Keel Accounting Search. I'm calling about your staff accountant opening; it's been up since September. Is it still a priority to fill before year-end?

ControllerIt is, but honestly nobody's going to start before January now.

YouAgreed, so the real question is whether you want someone ready to start the first week of January. That means interviews in the next two weeks. I have two candidates who could do that, and one has her bonus paying out in early January, so the timing actually works.

ControllerThat could work. Send me both and I'll see who I can fit in next week.

YouI'll send short summaries today. While I have you, is anything else opening on your team in the first quarter?

The year-end deadline is the manager's, not yours; you're just making it concrete. For more on who owns entry-level accounting reqs, see the staff accountant hiring manager guide. If you're bringing a standout person rather than responding to an ad, the approach in marketing a most placeable candidate works well in December, when managers have time to read.

Holiday recruiting myths

Most of these keep recruiters off the phone during weeks that are actually workable.

MythNobody hires in December.

RealityPlenty of offers get made and accepted in December for January starts. What slows down is interviewing in the last two weeks of the month, so the work is front-loaded into early December.

MythA holiday email to the whole client list keeps you top of mind.

RealityIt lands with every other seasonal greeting and says nothing. If you want to stay in touch, send a short note with something useful, such as a candidate or what you're seeing in the market.

MythCandidates don't want to hear about jobs over the holidays.

RealityActive searching drops, but a specific opportunity for a January start, delivered personally, is easy to say yes to. Don't cold-call candidates on Christmas Eve.

MythWait until January when budgets reset.

RealityBy then, the January starts are already decided and every recruiter is calling. The managers you reach in December often become January's first job orders.

What to do, and what not to do, this season

A short list to keep on your desk from November through New Year's.

Do prioritize the ads that have been open longest. Year-end urgency is strongest there.
Do confirm every pending offer, start date and bonus question in writing before December 18.
Do stay in touch with placed candidates serving notice over the holidays. A quiet week at home is when a counteroffer or second thoughts creep in.
Do spend the last week of December building your January call list; see build your Q1 target list in December.
Don't send gimmicky holiday emails: no Santa subject lines, no "Happy holidays! Are you hiring?", no holiday-themed graphics.
Don't vanish for two weeks without coverage. If a manager calls back on December 29 and nobody answers, the next agency gets the req.
Don't press for decisions during the last week of the year. Book the January meeting instead.
Healthcare is different: hospitals run every day of the year, and nurse managers juggle holiday schedules. Ask about January staffing needs, not December coverage; the registered nurse hiring manager guide covers who owns those reqs.

Questions agency recruiters ask

Is it worth doing business development during the holidays?: Yes, especially in November and the first half of December. Managers are still working and fewer recruiters are calling. Save the last two weeks of December for confirming offers and planning January.
Do candidates look for jobs over the holidays?: Less around Christmas, more in January. Indeed Hiring Lab found job searches fell 34% from December 1 to Christmas Day in 2023, then rebounded by the end of January (Hiring Lab). Line up candidates before mid-December and present them in the first week of January.
How do I handle a candidate waiting for a year-end bonus?: Ask about the bonus on the first call: when it pays, how much, and whether it's guaranteed. Then plan the start date after the payout or discuss a sign-on bonus with the hiring manager well before the offer stage.

Sources