As the weather gets warmer, the sunshine gets longer and the days grow long, we believe employment cycles slow down… Is this an urban myth or the truth? We do believe many managers start taking their vacations in the summer (it is high season after all) and recruiters and candidates cant seem to get any responses.

What should we do? Give up? Wait till September when all the managers are back to work… I’m sorry to say that I believe that the ‘Summer slow-down’ is an urban myth. In the 10+ years of recruiting, the volume of recruits have been steady.  Although summer time is when most of the managers are away at the cottage, there seems to be a steady stream of job orders coming in throughout the entire year.

Manufacturing is 24/7. Products still need to be produced and widgets still has to get out the door – even in the summer months.

Some plants work on Fiscal Year ends and summer time is their most busiest season. HR Managers still have those requirements that are outstanding and there is still pressure on the Managers to (i.e. Fill outstanding requisitions, or produce xxx number of widgets for customer Y). I have seen there are really no ‘real’ plant shut downs during the summer months. Even if there was one, Maintenance crews are busy retrofitting, re-fixing the machinery to get them working at optimal performance windows.

What does this mean to recruiting? It means recruiters are busy year round. They should not think of long summer days where manufacturing plants are stopped to a dead still. This does not happen. In fact, its an urban myth.

So, if your thinking of winding down your recruitment office because of a summer slow-down, I would highly urge you to ‘think again’..