Employers are pausing white-collar hires to see what AI can do first
The News
Employers waiting to see what AI can do are holding off on hiring, contributing to longer job searches for white-collar workers, according to Experian chief economist Joseph Mayans, speaking Oct. 19 at the HR Executive Strategy Summit at HR Tech 2026 in Las Vegas. "Companies are just saying, 'Let's try to implement AI. Let's see what it can do. Let's not hire this person to come in and try to do this role,'" Mayans said. He described a "slow leak" in white-collar employment: hiring in financial services, information, and professional and business services has been largely flat since late 2022, layoffs have risen gradually, and modest layoffs can now push unemployment up because recruitment is so limited. He expects weak job creation to persist over the next two years.
Why It Matters
A chief economist confirming that AI deliberation itself is now a hiring headwind reframes a conversation most TA leaders are having defensively. If hiring managers are freezing requisitions to 'see what AI can do', the bottleneck in your funnel isn't candidate supply — it's decision-making upstream of recruiting. That puts TA in an unusual position of influence: you are the function holding the data on what roles genuinely need humans, and CEOs will need that evidence within the next two years, not eventually. Graduates and returning jobseekers bear the brunt, which also has employer-brand consequences for campus and experienced pipelines alike.
Taking Action
All action is situated in your corporate context. These are starting points, not prescriptions — choose what fits.
Connect
Who to talk with in your enterprise
Your CFO and head of workforce planning: ask whether any open white-collar requisitions are being deliberately held pending AI assessments, and for how long — a freeze framed as 'waiting' is still a freeze. Your head of talent acquisition operations: review age-of-requisition data to distinguish roles that are genuinely hard to fill from roles nobody has decided to fill.
Inspect
What to take a closer look at
Check your stalled-requisition rate for office roles against the same period last year. Flag any requisition open more than 60 days with no interview activity — those are the roles being 'held for AI', and each one is a bet your organisation is making implicitly. Make the bet explicit: a named owner, a decision date, and the work the role would otherwise cover.
Reflect
What to think about more deeply
If your company has roles sitting unfilled while it waits to see what AI can do, who is accountable for the work that goes undone during the wait — and for the candidate who waited in your pipeline?