With senior staff on holiday and potential candidates out of the country at first glance it may appear that August is the worst time of year to try to hire new staff. However, research from specialist IT recruiter, Randstad Technologies, suggests the opposite.

An analysis of the ratio of jobseekers to vacancies shows that, on average, there are 3.1 candidates for every new job in August – compared to an average of 2.3 candidates over the course of the year. 

Randstad Technologies also found that whereas August was the best month for employers to stand out and fill vacancies, January is the best month for IT and digital professionals to try to land their dream job, with research showing that, on average, there are only 1.2 new jobseekers going after every new vacancy during the first month of the year.

Mike Beresford, Managing Director of Randstad Technologies, commented: “If you want the best odds on scooping up high-flyers, August is the month to hire. These figures show the competition for the best talent is less intense. With the ratio of candidates to potential vacancies so advantageous to the hiring organisation, the summer is an ideal time to recruit.  You might not be able to count on the sun during a typical British August, but if you are in the IT and technology industries, you can count on having to fight that little bit less hard for every candidate you want to hire.”

Randstad Technologies analysed the times of the year that IT, digital, and telecoms professionals started looking for new roles, and when relevant job vacancies became available.

From an employer’s point of view, the best season to recruit is summer (June, July, and August) where there are, on average, 2.4 new jobseekers for every new vacancy.  Winter (December, January, and February) is by far the worst time of year with just 1.3 new job seekers for every new role.

The research also highlighted the huge demand for IT and Technology professionals. Over the past three years, there have been just 2.3 new candidates for every fresh role advertised in these highly-skilled sectors, compared to an average of 2.7 new candidates for every sector across the UK.

Mr Beresford added: “The UK lost a lot of skilled Technology and IT talent over the dark days of 2009 and the worst of the economic downturn, as overseas markets offered more work and better pay.  But the industry has rediscovered itself since the sharp decline in recruitment in 2008 and 2009.  Increased demand has driven hiring across the UK although there are still significant skills gaps in the workforce.  That’s been reflected in salary growth.  We’ve seen salaries for IT Systems experts grow by over 65% outside London over the course of the last three years.  There’s a real shortage of skilled people – a shortage that the pitiful number of appropriately trained graduates and post-graduates cannot be expected to fill.  But timing can help.  If you want the tap up the top talent, the summer’s the time to do it.”

The research analysed a diverse range of sectors to find when most people wanted to move jobs and when new vacancies became available. It highlighted significant differences between sectors. While employers looking to fill nursing, and engineering job vacancies are, similarly to employers in the IT sector, best off trying to hire new staff in the summer, by far the best time for investment banks to hire staff is in winter (December, January, and February) when the jobs market floods with people looking to move job following the bonus season.