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Holiday scheduling for 2017: When do employers plan to close?

11/11/2016

If your organization offers paid holidays off work, which days next year will you count as holidays … President’s Day? … Veteran’s Day? … the day after Thanksgiving?

To compare your holiday closing plans with those of other U.S. employers on various religious and secular holidays, review the findings of the 2017 Holiday Schedules survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

The survey says a vast majority of organizations (more than 90%) will observe the following federal holidays in 2017 by closing their offices: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Three quarters (75%) of employers plan to close their doors the day after Thanksgiving (Friday, Nov. 24).

Here are closing plans for other federal holidays in which nonessential government offices will be closed:

  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Mon., Jan. 16) — 39% of offices closed
  • President’s Day (Mon., Feb. 20) — 34% of offices closed
  • Columbus Day (Mon., Oct. 9) — 14% of offices closed
  • Day before Veterans Day (Fri., Nov. 10) — 19% of offices closed

What about the 2017 holiday season? With Christmas falling on a Monday in 2017, most employers (95%) will close their offices that day. Here are the closing percentages for other days during that week in 2017:

  • Friday before Christmas (Fri., Dec. 22) — 19% closed
  • Day before Christmas Eve (Sat., Dec. 23) — 35% closed
  • Christmas Eve (Sun., Dec. 24) — 62% closed
  • Christmas Day (Mon., Dec. 25) — 95% closed
  • Day after Christmas (Tues., Dec. 26) — 28% closed
  • Week between Christmas and New Year’s Day — 15% closed
  • Friday before New Year’s Eve (Fri., Dec. 29) — 20% closed
  • Day before New Year’s Eve (Sat., Dec. 30) — 33% closed
  • New Year’s Eve (Sun., Dec. 31) — 44% closed
  • New Year’s Day (Mon., Jan. 1, 2018) — 95% closed
  • Day after New Year’s Day (Tues., Jan. 2, 2018) — 7% closed

Find employer closing plans on other holidays by reviewing the full SHRM 2017 Holiday Schedules survey. To find data on the 2016 holiday season, including closing plans for the 2016 Christmas holidays, see the SHRM 2016 Holiday Schedules survey.