We’re in the home stretch of 2018! It’s been a year filled with record-low unemployment rates and consistent battles to find skilled talent. Technology continues to dominate the job landscape, as well as how and where we do our jobs. As this year comes to an end, let’s take a look back at all it had to offer.

Job search engine, Monster.com, recently compiled various data trends from over the year, some of which are highlighted below. The Monster data provides an even more nuanced picture of the job landscape that awaits us in 2019, with the top industries surprisingly covering vast terrain across the job market.

Top Industries for Hiring

When it comes to the types of industries that did the most hiring in 2018, Monster found that the construction, trades, production, and warehousing industries all saw an uptick in hiring. This should come as no surprise with the recent announcement of Amazon’s two newest headquarters coming to Virginia and New York City.

Monster data highlights the top 10 industries that were hiring in 2018, and which job titles were most popular in these industries:

1. Construction, Trades, Production, and Warehousing

• Driver/Sales Workers and Truck Drivers

1. Computer, Information Technology, and Mathematical

• Software Developers and Programmers

1. Sales and Marketing

• Sales Representatives, Wholesale, and Manufacturing

1. Business Operations, HR, and Financial Services

• Accountants and Auditors

1. Office, Administrative, and Customer Support

• Customer Service Representatives

1. Architecture and Engineering

• Engineers

1. Installation, Facilities, Maintenance, and Repair

• Maintenance and Repair Workers

1. Healthcare and Safety

• Registered Nurses

1. Food Service, Travel, and Personal, and Consumer Services

• Managers

1. Protective Services and Military

• Military Enlisted Tactical Operations and Air/Weapons Specialists and Crew Member

Top Locations for Hiring

“Remember what we said about Amazon?” asks Gelber. “We’ve got a sneaking suspicion it’s got something to do with the fact that three—three!—Washington cities broke our top 10.” As Amazon moves to the East Coast, it should come as no surprise that its original headquarters makes the number one spot for top locations that were hiring in 2018, while its newest location comes in at number two.

Here are the top 10 locations that were hiring in 2018:

1. Seattle, Washington

2. New York City, New York

3. Houston, Texas

4. Atlanta, Georgia

5. Charlotte, North Carolina

6. Chicago, Illinois

7. Boston, Massachusetts

8. Phoenix, Arizona

9. Bellevue, Washington

10. Redmond, Washington

Top Times for Job Searches

The juiciest data from Monster’s research lies in the times of day people were searching for jobs. One would assume that most people would search for jobs on Monday mornings because let’s face it Mondays are terrible. But that’s not the case!

Monster finds that the most popular day of the week to search for a job is Wednesday, and most people start looking shortly after coming back from lunch—specifically, at 1 p.m. And while we’re in the last few weeks of December, it’s also worth noting that Monster finds the most popular month to search for a new job is in January.

Monster reports that in 2018, eight of the top 10 days for job searching were in January. This is great news for recruiters as we head into a new year after facing so many hiring challenges over the last 12 months. Here’s to finding that purple squirrel in 2019!ent