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When the Work Comes: Moving and Cleanout Season in Numbers

Updated September 2026

Every moving blog says "most moves happen in summer." The government data says something more useful and less dramatic. This guide gives the three sources that actually exist — a Census Bureau survey of when people moved, Bureau of Labor Statistics payroll counts for the moving industry, and the Realtors’ home-sales seasonality — and is honest that nobody publishes seasonality for junk removal specifically.

When people move

The Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation asked people which month they last moved. The most recent analysis (the 2008 panel, published 2011) found: June is the most popular month, with about 11% of moves; August second, at about 10%. The winter months are the trough: only about 7% of movers each moved in December, February or March. Spring and fall months fall between, at 8–9% each. Summer as a whole — June through August — carried around 30% of moves.

Two things worth knowing. Summer is the biggest of four seasons, not a majority — seven in ten moves happen outside it. And the peak has been flattening: across the Census panels from 1993 to 2008, summer’s share fell from about 37% to about 30% while winter and spring rose. The data is old, because Census has not repeated the analysis; the pattern it describes is the school year and the housing market, and neither has moved.

A figure to avoid: "July is the busiest month, with 20% of moves." It appears on many moving-company sites and has no Census source; Census puts June first at about 11%. Likewise "40–45% of moves happen May to September," attributed to a trade association that no longer exists at that address — we could not verify it.

How the moving industry staffs for it

BLS counts employees at household and office goods movers every month, not seasonally adjusted. In 2024 the count ran from 88,600 in December to 104,200 in June; in 2025, from 86,200 in January to 101,100 in July. Put simply: moving companies carry about 15–17% more people at the July peak than at the winter trough, and the ramp starts in April and May.

By contrast, employment across the whole waste-management industry moves only about 2% either side of its annual average through the year. Junk removal sits somewhere between the two, and BLS does not separate it out.

The housing market underneath it

The National Association of Realtors (a trade association, using its own sales data) puts average existing-home closings at 11,380 a day in December–February, 16,530 in April–June, 16,200 in July–September and 13,810 in October–November — about 45% more closings a day in late spring than in winter, with June alone above 18,000 a day. Every closing is a move out and a move in, and a cleanout before the listing.

The federal government treats spring as the start of the season too: FMCSA launched its 2023 crackdown on rogue movers in April, in its words "ahead of the busy summer moving season."

What to do with it

  • Hire in March, not June. The moving industry’s payrolls start climbing in April. A crew hired when the phone is already ringing is trained on your worst weeks.
  • Price the peak. If June carries 11% of the year’s moves and February 7%, the same truck-day is worth more in June. Peak pricing is normal in every seasonal trade; a small premium in the busy weeks and an off-season rate in winter smooths both the calendar and the cash.
  • Bank the summer. The money guide in this series shows the median small business holds about four weeks of cash. The winter trough is predictable; the cushion for it is earned in June.
  • Sell the off-season. Estate cleanouts, storage-unit clear-outs, garage and basement jobs and pre-listing cleanouts do not follow the school year. Winter is when to court the realtors and property managers who feed them.
  • Keep last year’s numbers. The only seasonality data that is really about your business is your own: jobs per week, by type, for the last two years. Nobody else can publish that.

RelayPoint, in your trade’s words: Movers · Junk removal & hauling · Roll-off & dumpsters · Landscaping & tree service · Portable sanitation & septic

Sources

  1. US Census Bureau — Marlay & Mateyka, The Seasonality of Moves: 2009 (working paper, 2011) — 2008 SIPP panel
  2. US Census Bureau — Schachter & Kuenzi, Seasonality of Moves and the Duration and Tenure of Residence: 1996 (working paper 69, 2002)
  3. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Current Employment Statistics, all employees, used household and office goods moving (NAICS 48421), not seasonally adjusted, series CEU4348421001
  4. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Current Employment Statistics, all employees, waste management and remediation services (NAICS 562), series CEU6056200001
  5. National Association of Realtors — Navigating the Housing Market: A Seasonal Perspective (April 2024) — a trade association’s analysis
  6. FMCSA — FMCSA Launches Operation Protect Your Move (April 2023)

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and RelayPoint is not a law firm, an accountant or a compliance consultant. The figures are other organisations’ published findings, read in September 2026 at the addresses listed under Sources; they describe the businesses those organisations studied, not yours, and none of them is a result of using RelayPoint.