According to a new joint study from Perkbox, Europe’s fastest growing employee experience platform and CV-Library, the UK’s leading independent job board, professionals are more likely to apply for a new job this month than any other – which could mean trouble for UK employers.

The study, which explores historical job market data* from the CV-Library platform and additional findings from SEMRush, reveals that January is consistently the most popular month for professionals to register their CVs online and apply for a new job.

In fact, when looking at data from the past three years, the amount of CVs registered online in January is 34% higher than the monthly average, with February experiencing the second-highest amount (3% more than average). Alongside this, application numbers are consistently higher in January (19% more than the monthly average) and March (13% more than the monthly average).

This trend is also visible in online job searches. According to Perkbox’s analysis of data from SEM Rush, ‘jobs near me’ is searched for more than twice as often in January than any other month of the year. This was the case for every year between 2016 and 2019 – though it’s worth noting that it was 174% higher than the monthly average in January 2016 vs. 124% higher in January 2019.

Saurav Chopra, Co-founder and CEO at Perkbox says: 

“With January being the time for New Year’s resolutions and reflecting on what we can do to improve in our day to day lives, it’s perfectly normal that employees take time to reflect on their current roles and careers paths. 

“As employers, this is a great opportunity for us to listen and assess if the employee experience we’re providing is as great as it could be, and if that’s not the case, decide what improvements can be made to strengthen it.”

However, on a positive note for employers, despite January being a popular month for job hunting, October is actually when the most amount of jobs are posted (10% more than the monthly average), followed by July (4% more than the monthly average) and September (2% more than the monthly average).

Lee Biggins, Founder and CEO at CV-Library adds: 

“January is always a popular time for both hiring and job hunting and while you don’t want to lose any talented employees to the competition, our data is certainly positive if you’re hoping to grow your workforce in 2020. 

“Every organisation will have its own priorities and hiring needs – though it’s important to be in tune with when professionals are most likely to look for a new job. Whether that’s because you want to push your vacancies, or because you want to hold on to talented employees; the best employers will be able to strike the right balance to attract, recruit and retain the very best workers.”