The daily on talent acquisition technology
Earlier Stories · Page 5
via Strada Education Foundation
Strada Education Foundation's 'Talent in Motion' report finds 55% of US workers with a four-year degree work in the state where they grew up and studied, and only 9% moved for college and never left.
via Careerminds
Careerminds, a global outplacement and career-transition provider, has acquired Jobrapido, one of the world's largest independent job search and distribution platforms, for undisclosed terms.
via Metaview
London-based Metaview, whose agentic recruiting platform is used by more than 5,000 companies, has acquired AI-native recruiting firm Reval to accelerate its outbound recruiting 'AI coworker' fillmore.
via HR Dive
RSM US Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas argues that a 'historic exit' of older workers from the US labour force — combined with restrictive immigration policy — leaves employers with no choice but to turn to AI as a substitute for labour.
via Staffing Today
Twenty-six former Meta employees have filed a federal lawsuit alleging the company used AI tools to select workers for its May 2026 reduction in force, resulting in the disproportionate selection of employees with disabilities.
via ICO
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office has launched free online data protection training aimed at SMEs and sole traders, signalling that the regulator expects smaller organisations to meet the same data handling standards as large enterprises.
via HR Executive
A scenario report by European AI researchers warns Europe is on track to lose control over AI compute, talent, and industrial leverage by 2031. Europe currently controls an estimated 5% of global AI compute while the US holds close to 70%. The authors recommend aggressive AI adoption paired with retraining and income support rather than job protection.
via Upwork
Upwork launched an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that allows companies to find and hire freelance talent directly within the AI tools where work happens. The move integrates Upwork's talent marketplace into AI-native workflows, following Q2 results showing record GSV per active client of $5,230.
via HR Tech Feed
Indeed paused the fully automated mode of its 'Apply for Me' AI feature on 4 August after employers pushed back against paying for bot-generated applications that flooded their pipelines with low-intent candidates. The feature, launched as a pilot in July, let AI submit applications on behalf of job seekers. Indeed is now pivoting to a human-in-the-loop model where AI drafts applications but requires manual review and submission.
via Challenger, Gray & Christmas
US employers announced 33,429 job cuts in July 2026, the lowest monthly total in two years and down 27% from June, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Yet AI was cited as the reason for 33% of those cuts — the fifth consecutive month it has led all categories. Hiring plans surged to 16,095, up 47% from June and the highest July figure since 2022. Tech accounted for 31% of all cuts this year, with 149,023 layoffs year-to-date, up 67% from the same period in 2025.
via Job Board Doctor
When asked directly about adverse impact analysis for disability and veteran status, AI assessment vendor Maki People acknowledged it does not test its Mochi assessment for disability bias — a gap that appears to be industry-wide. The admission, reported by Job Board Doctor on 6 August, exposes a compliance blind spot as AI-driven pre-hire assessments proliferate across high-volume recruiting.
via Safehire.ai
London-based Safehire.ai secured a £500,000 follow-on investment on 5 August, bringing total funding to £1.55m. Founded by former British Army officers, the company provides AI-powered digital risk screening for hiring and access decisions, initially focused on education and now expanding into enterprise, insider risk, and international markets.
via GOV.UK
The UK government has expanded its Global Talent visa to allow more than 100 research-intensive companies — including AstraZeneca, Jaguar Land Rover, Arm, GSK, and quantum startups Riverlane and NuQuantum — to directly sponsor international scientists and engineers. It's the first time commercial businesses can use this route, which was previously restricted to universities and research institutes.
via Personnel Today
New research from The Talent Labs finds that 78% of UK companies now operate primarily through direct hiring models, with only 22% relying on external agencies. Forty-two percent have reduced agency usage over the past two years, driven by investment in sourcing technology and AI tools that have expanded in-house capability — while economic pressure forces TA teams to deliver more for less.
via Staffing Hub
Adecco Group aims to run more than 50% of its global revenue through agentic AI by year-end, backed by a multi-year Salesforce Agentforce 360 deal. The target follows a UK pilot that delivered 15% time savings and lower cost-to-serve, while Bullhorn's GRID report shows only 10% of staffing firms have agentic AI running across their full workflow.
via UC Today
Microsoft is retiring Perspectives, its internal peer feedback platform, after employees began using Copilot to generate feedback responses — hollowing out the tool's purpose. The move signals a shift toward continuous, real-time conversations between managers and employees, and raises uncomfortable questions about what happens to structured HR processes when AI makes them painless and pointless.
Indeed's 2026 Mid-Year UK Jobs & Hiring Trends Report finds job postings down 11% since January and 32% below the pre-pandemic baseline — far worse than the euro area or US. Graduate job postings are at their lowest for this time of year since 2020. Meanwhile, AI mentions in UK job postings have reached a record 9.4% and jobseeker searches for AI roles have risen sevenfold since ChatGPT launched.
The ADP National Employment Report for July 2026 shows private employers added only 44,000 jobs — well below expectations. Meanwhile, the BLS JOLTS report for June shows job openings holding steady at 7.4 million and quits flat at 3.2 million. The outlier: year-over-year pay growth for job-changers accelerated to its fastest pace in nearly a year, suggesting supply constraints remain in parts of the labour market despite subdued headline hiring.
via ERE
Pelgo, a career-transition startup founded by former Boxed CEO Chieh Huang and former Cognizant CEO Francisco D'Souza, is using AI agents to deliver outplacement services at $20 per departing employee per month — a fraction of the $2,000+ cost of traditional human-coached outplacement. The model makes outplacement economically viable for front-line and hourly workers for the first time, with implications for employer brand, boomerang hiring, and how organisations manage workforce reductions at scale.
via WaveTrackR
Wave's August 2026 Recruitment Trends Snapshot, based on July data from its WaveTrackR platform, shows UK job postings increased 12% month-on-month while applications fell 5%, pushing average applications per job down to 15. Placements still rose 8%. Education and health & nursing dominated hiring activity, while market sentiment shifted from 'Improving' to 'Cooling.'
Each edition is researched and written for TA professionals navigating the intersection of talent and technology.