Do Companies Hire in November and December? Yes: 3.88 Million U.S. Hires in December 2025, the Year’s Slowest Month (Oct. 26, 2026)
Yes: U.S. employers made 4,451,000 hires in November 2025 and 3,879,000 in December 2025, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data we read on October 26, 2026. December was the slowest month of the year, at about 74% of the monthly average, but nothing close to a hiring freeze.
The same dip shows up in every year we checked. December was the lowest month for hires in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Then January bounced back, to 5,256,000 hires in January 2026.
We also looked at our own data. Every day we read the career boards of 19 AI companies, and the one holiday in our records, Labor Day, cut new postings that day to almost nothing. Both sets of numbers are below, with what they mean if you are job hunting this fall.
What we read on October 26, 2026
- BLS hiring data: monthly U.S. nonfarm hires and job openings from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), January 2023 through August 2026, pulled through the BLS public data API. We use the not seasonally adjusted series, because the seasonal swing is the question. BLS revises these figures; ours are as published on October 26, 2026.
- Our scan history: 65 daily reads of 19 AI company career boards, from August 22 to October 26, 2026, the same data behind our AI jobs tracker. A job link counts as new the first day we see it.
- Google DeepMind’s US board, the 20th in our list, returned an error (HTTP 404) and is not counted.
- We did not survey employers or job seekers. Where we say what we expect for this year’s holidays, that is an inference from past data, and we say so.
Written and checked by Prof. H. An AI assistant helped draft this piece and run the page reads; every figure was read on the source’s own page or data feed on October 26, 2026.
Do companies stop hiring in November and December?
No: BLS JOLTS data read on October 26, 2026 show 8,330,000 U.S. hires in November and December 2025 combined, with November at 85% and December at 74% of the 2025 monthly average of 5,248,000. Hiring slows, but it never stops.
The table puts the three most recent full years side by side. The pattern is steady: November dips, December dips further, and the year’s peak comes in late spring or early summer.
| Year | November hires | December hires | December vs. year average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4,998,000 | 4,072,000 | 69% |
| 2024 | 4,668,000 | 3,873,000 | 72% |
| 2025 | 4,451,000 | 3,879,000 | 74% |
For scale, the 2025 total came to 62,972,000 hires over 12 months, and the two slow months still made up 13% of it. Our reading of the table is simple: a slow month for hiring still means millions of people starting jobs.
Why are November and December the slowest months for hiring?
Mostly the calendar: once BLS removes the usual seasonal pattern, December 2025 had 5,272,000 hires, close to the 2025 seasonally adjusted average of 5,245,000, so the raw December drop is the normal yearly dip, not a sign of a weak month. That comparison uses BLS’s own seasonally adjusted series, read October 26, 2026.
What the data cannot tell you is why each employer slows down. Holidays and time off cut the working days for interviews and start dates. Many companies also plan next year’s headcount late in the year. Those are common explanations, but BLS does not measure them, so treat them as context, not findings.
Job openings dip too, but less. Openings were 6,591,000 in November 2025 and 6,088,000 in December 2025, the lowest month of the year at about 86% of the 2025 average. Employers kept advertising roles even as fewer people started.
What happened to AI job postings on the one holiday in our data?
They nearly stopped for a day: our daily scan that took in Labor Day, Monday, September 7, 2026, found 5 new job links across 19 AI company boards, against 36 to 72 on every other Monday window from August 24 to October 25. The full Labor Day week had 211 new links, the lowest of the nine weeks we counted, whose average was 267.
Postings recovered right away: 241 new links the week after, and 272 in the week of October 19. These are new links, not net growth. On October 26, 2026 the boards held 3,809 open roles, -23 from a week earlier, because roles also close.
Here is the part we cannot know yet. Our scan history starts August 22, 2026, so it covers no Thanksgiving or Christmas. Our expectation, based on Labor Day and the BLS pattern, is that new AI postings will thin out around Thanksgiving week and the last two weeks of December. That is an inference. We will count it and report back.
Which AI companies added or cut the most open roles this week?
From October 19 to October 26, 2026, Sierra added the most open roles on its board (+25) and Anthropic added +23, while Replit fell by 28 and OpenAI by 24. All 19 boards together went from 3,832 to 3,809 roles.
| Company | Oct. 19 | Oct. 26 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sierra | 186 | 211 | +25 |
| Anthropic | 659 | 682 | +23 |
| Waymo | 362 | 366 | +4 |
| Scale AI | 182 | 170 | -12 |
| OpenAI | 814 | 790 | -24 |
| Replit | 65 | 37 | -28 |
A one-week change is small next to the season. Since our first reading on August 22, 2026 (3,652 roles), the total peaked at 3,894 on September 24 and has drifted to 3,809. For company-by-company detail, see is Anthropic hiring, is OpenAI still hiring and which AI companies are hiring right now.
Cite this: On October 26, 2026, profhlab counted 3,809 open roles on 19 AI company career boards, -23 from October 19; source: profhlab AI jobs tracker.
Should you keep applying for jobs through the holidays?
The BLS numbers say employers kept hiring: 3,879,000 people were hired in the U.S. in December 2025 alone, and 6,088,000 jobs were open that month. Whether the holidays suit your search depends on your field and timeline, which no dataset can answer. These are the steps we would take, based on the numbers above.
- Apply in early November rather than waiting. November hires were still 85% of an average 2025 month. Roles posted now can close before December.
- Expect slower replies around the holidays. On Labor Day, new AI postings fell to 5 in our scan. Fewer people at work likely means fewer replies too, though we could not measure replies.
- Use the quiet weeks to prepare. Update your resume and read the application questions ahead of time; our piece on using AI on job applications shows what the forms ask.
- Be ready for January. Hires jumped from 3,879,000 in December 2025 to 5,256,000 in January 2026.
- Watch for postings that sit open. Our pieces on how long job postings stay up and why companies repost the same job explain what an old or reposted listing can mean.
Retail and delivery seasonal jobs follow their own calendar, with hiring that starts before the holidays. This piece is about hiring overall and about AI company boards, not about seasonal retail work.
We are not recruiters. We take no money from employers, and postings can close at any time; the employer’s official page wins. Never pay to apply, never deposit a check and send money back, a text message is not a job offer, and apply only on the employer’s own site. Be wary of “seasonal job” offers that arrive by text; more at the Jobs Desk sources.
What do Good Morning America and Yahoo Finance add on holiday hiring and JOLTS?
Good Morning America’s holiday hiring segment had 2,156 views and Yahoo Finance’s JOLTS explainer had 3,942 when we checked on October 26, 2026. The first covers seasonal jobs, the part of holiday hiring this piece leaves out. The second explains the BLS survey our numbers come from.
Timing, postings and AI employers: ten more Jobs Desk counts
- What day of the week are most jobs posted — the weekday pattern in the same scan data.
- What it means when a job posting is taken down — when a listing disappears.
- AI companies hiring remote workers — AI roles you can do from home.
- Is Waymo hiring — the full board at Waymo.
- Is Scale AI hiring — the board at Scale AI.
- Is Figure AI hiring — the humanoid robot maker’s openings.
- Entry-level AI jobs with no experience — roles you can start without a track record.
- Do job applications still ask for references — what the forms ask about past managers.
- What contract-to-hire means — a job type that shows up all year.
- Can you apply to multiple jobs at the same company — whether more than one application hurts.
Every open role on these boards is on our jobs board, where you can browse every open role and apply on the employer’s site. Daily counts are on the AI jobs tracker. Have a question about your search? Ask the Jobs Desk.
Do companies stop hiring in November?
No. U.S. employers made 4,451,000 hires in November 2025, according to BLS JOLTS data (not seasonally adjusted) read on October 26, 2026. That was about 85% of the 2025 monthly average, so November is slower than spring and summer but far from a freeze.
Do companies hire in December?
Yes. December 2025 had 3,879,000 hires, the lowest month of the year but still millions of people starting jobs. December was also the lowest month in 2023 (4,072,000) and 2024 (3,873,000).
Is December a bad month to apply for jobs?
It is the slowest month for hires in the BLS data, but job openings stayed at 6,088,000 in December 2025. Fewer hires does not tell you how many people are applying. We could not find a source that measures applicants by month, so we do not claim there is less competition.
When does hiring pick back up after the holidays?
In January. U.S. hires rose from 3,879,000 in December 2025 to 5,256,000 in January 2026, BLS data show.
Are AI companies still hiring going into November 2026?
Yes, by our count. On October 26, 2026, 3,809 roles were open on the 19 AI company career boards we read every day, and 272 new job links appeared in the week of October 19.
BLS series and scan files behind every number, read October 26, 2026
- Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Series JTU000000000000000HIL (hires, not seasonally adjusted), JTU000000000000000JOL (job openings, not seasonally adjusted) and JTS000000000000000HIL (hires, seasonally adjusted), read through the BLS public data API on October 26, 2026. Latest month available: August 2026 (5,753,000 hires).
- Our daily reads of 19 AI company career boards through the employers’ public Greenhouse and Ashby feeds, August 22 to October 26, 2026; daily totals are on our AI jobs tracker.
- “Holiday hiring surge”, Good Morning America, published October 22, 2026; “Yahoo U: What is the JOLTS report?”, Yahoo Finance, published August 13, 2021; both checked October 26, 2026.
Next check: we will count new AI job links through Thanksgiving week and report the result in our Monday piece on December 7, 2026.
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