Those students graduating during the chilly month of December receive one unanticipated holiday gift that should warm their hearts.

While millions of students every year graduate college in Dec., it is still far less than the amount of those who do so in May and that is a major advantage. According to a piece by Varsity Tutors in USA Today, Dec. graduates can immediately start looking for a job in a market far less congested by their peers. Perhaps the only downside is that Dec. graduation typically gets a smaller ceremony, if there is one at all.

Varsity Tudors said employers typically “slow full-time hiring in December,” presumably due to the winter holiday season. This would make Dec. a good time to send out applications because hiring starts again in Jan. and Feb. Mary Eileen Williams, a 20-year career and life counselor, wrote earlier this month for the Huffington Post that Dec. is the best time of the year to apply for jobs. She said interviewing decreases considerably during this time of year and picks up immediately in the New Year. She also said there is typically more space in the budget for new hires, which, coupled with less competition, is a major advantage.

Another career coach, Kim Dority, told Fox Business in 2011 that missing out on the grander spring commencement ceremony is a small sacrifice compared to an easier job market. “December grads may miss the traditional big send-off of [summer] graduation with hundreds of fellow students, but they get two big presents instead: a job-hunting field with very little competition from other graduates, and a mistaken assumption among most other job-hunters that it’s impossible to land a job in December,” she said at the time.