👋 Welcome back, TA pros!

The U.S. and China hit pause on their tariff tennis match, agreeing to a 90-day ceasefire. It’s not peace. It’s not a treaty. It’s a timeout for 90 days to try to finalize negotiations.

Financial markets love good vibes (even temporary ones), and this sent the S&P and Nasdaq into rally mode, giving CEOs something to cheer about. Companies in the wait-and-see mode may quietly start reactivating budgets and recruiting plans, but the emphasis here is on may.

For hiring pros? It’s also a potential green light and finally some good news on the recruiting front. Industries like manufacturing, logistics, tech hardware, and retail, the sectors that live or die by global supply chains, are suddenly a little less twitchy. With fewer tariffs (for now), costs go down, confidence goes up, and some hiring freezes might thaw. Slowly. Like a Trader Joe’s burrito in the sun. If graphs make your heart race, we’ve got a labor market briefing happening today — come get your fix.

AI is still a hot topic in this issue…so hot that we really want your feedback on a new product we’re working on to map the AI market. It’s your chance to help design the product of your AI dreams.  Schedule time with the team here.

Questions? Comments? Wondering if anyone’s listening? Reply to this email — we’d love to hear from you!

— Team Talivity ✨

Today’s issue is a 5-minute read. Here’s what to expect 👇

🎲 AI in hiring is changing the game
👩‍💻 TA roles must be more strategic and tech-savvy
☹️ Job burnout is increasing
💻 AI and computer science for high school students
💼 Layoffs at Microsoft, Match Group, Panasonic

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NEWS

One Thing You Should Know This Week

ERE Media: What’s Happening to Talent Acquisition Careers?

Talent acquisition is having an identity crisis. And no, it’s not just about LinkedIn job titles. The TA profession is being redefined as companies tighten budgets, embrace AI, and rethink how and who they hire. 

🖼️ The big picture
TA roles exploded during the hiring frenzy of 2021–2022. Now? We’re seeing the hangover. The number of HR specialists grew by more than 248,000 in just three years in the US, but that growth has since flatlined, according to a new report in ERE Media. Despite record profits in the second half of 2024, many companies are still in cost-cutting mode. In Q1 2025, major recruiting firms are all reporting slowing activity and reduced gross profits.

Enter: The bots. AI is also reshaping the recruiting game faster than you can say “automated scheduling link.” A Resume Builder survey reports that 70% of companies will use AI in hiring, a dramatic jump from last year. Whether you like it or not, tech is changing the way talent acquisition is being done.

💼 What this means for TAs

Talent acquisition professionals are no longer not just filling roles anymore. They need to be a strategic advisor, a storyteller, and a tech-savvy talent whisperer. The future of TA will be about relationships, brand, and business value. Oh, and leveraging AI. According to David Manaster, CEO of ERE Media “…the structural changes driven by AI are already beginning to reshape the talent acquisition profession. For all the hype, these changes have been hard to see so far, but big changes sometimes happen gradually, then suddenly.” It’s not just about finding talent but about shaping how the organization competes for it.

🔮 Looking ahead

The outlook for talent acquisition isn’t all doom and gloom, but it is undeniably different. TA careers won’t disappear, but they will evolve—fast. Those who thrive in the next era won’t necessarily be the best sourcers or the most efficient schedulers; they’ll be the ones who can combine AI-driven workflows with human judgment, influence leadership strategy, and act as brand stewards in a noisy marketplace. The tools are changing, and so are the expectations. As AI adoption continues, companies will likely resist returning to pre-2023 staffing levels, even when hiring ramps up again.

Instead, they’ll look for fewer recruiters with broader skill sets: part technologist, part strategist, part storyteller. TA leaders who embrace this evolution—not just to keep pace, but to shape it—will define what the next generation of recruiting looks like. The question isn’t whether TA will survive. It’s who within it will lead the way forward. If you’ve got a vision for how AI should transform talent acquisition, let’s talk.

📥️ Read more at ERE Media

NUMBERS

Numbers That’ll Make You Think

• 62% — Percentage that organizations expect AI to support legal compliance monitoring (HR.com)
• 32% — Increase in mentions of “burnout” on job and recruiting site Glassdoor in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024 (HR Dive)
• 37.5 — Number of hours in the average workweek in Spain, down from 50, under a bill lawmakers approved (HR Brew)­
• 80 — Number of hours per month required in new  “community engagement requirements” legislation for Medicare eligibility for able-bodied adults without dependents (AP News)
• 12.6% — Percentage of current jobs in the U.S. that are at high or very high risk of displacement due to the proliferation of AI tools (SHRM)

EVENTS

Ways to Connect

📊 Talent Market Index (TMI) Briefing: Your Real-Time Pulse on the Talent Economy
May 22 | 1 PM ET
Cut through the noise with a clear, data-driven snapshot of today’s job market. Powered by Recruitics’ proprietary data, the Talivity Talent Market Index tracks demand and supply, media price trends, and candidate behavior shifts — your cheat code for smarter, faster hiring decisions. Don’t miss this virtual event to stay ahead of the competition.

👉 Register

⭐️ Reputation Reset: Re‑engineering Your Employer Brand on Glassdoor, Indeed & Beyond

 June 12 | 1 PM ET
Your brand is already a conversation — make sure you’re leading it. Learn how to turn negative signals into advocacy with a data-first recovery plan, plus get templates, checklists, and a sneak peek at Talivity’s Employer Reputation Navigator.

👉 Register

🤖 From Hyped to Hired: What Actually Works in AI for Talent Acquisition

July 9 | 1 PM ET
Cut through the AI noise and discover what actually works in talent acquisition. Hear unfiltered peer insights, learn fast-win AI use cases, avoid common traps, and get your first look at Talivity’s AI Talent Map to benchmark and optimize AI adoption.

👉 Register

INDUSTRY INTEL

M&A Deals, Industry Moves & Other Things to Know

• AI R&D company OpenAI has named Fi Sumo, currently CEO of grocery delivery platform InstaCart, as its new head of applications to focus on enabling company functions to scale (CNBC)
• Pharmaceutical and biotech company Moderna has merged its technology and human resources departments to reflect the growing impact of AI on workforce planning, naming Tracey Franklin as its Chief People and Digital Technology Officer (Wall Street Journal)
• Fast food giant McDonald’s looks to hire 375,000 more workers in 2025 for its 13,000 US restaurants and 900 new locations it plans to open in the next two years (The HR Digest)
• The US Department of Labor is revisiting salary thresholds for exempt employees and is likely to drop the rule adopted during the Biden administration (HR Brew)
• UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty resigned, citing personal reasons (New York Times)
• US tariffs are slowing hiring activity, dragging down gross profits at staffing firms like Adecco, Manpower Group, Randstad, and Robert Half (Bloomberg)
• Chronic delays at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey have highlighted aging equipment and a shortage of air traffic controllers (AP News)
• More than 200 CEOs signed on to a letter urging state leaders to mandate AI and computer science classes as a requirement for high school graduation, joining 12 states that currently do so (Axios)
• UK interview/meeting scheduling platform Cronofy has secured a £15 million investment from UK capital investment firm BGF (HR Tech Feed)

LAYOFFS

Places For You To Source Talent

• Tech giant Microsoft plans to lay off 6,000 workers, about 3% of its workforce across all levels, teams, and locations, to reduce management layers, leaving us curious about the impact on LinkedIn within our industry. (Fast Company)
• Dating app company Match Group plans to lay off 13% of its workforce, about 325 employees, noting a significant decrease in the number of paying customers (The HR Digest)
• Automaker Nissan announces the elimination of 11,000 more jobs in addition to the 9,000 previously announced, affecting about 15% of its global workforce (CNN)
• Luxury brand Burberry says it will cut 1,700 jobs globally by 2027, about 18% of its workers, as part of a restructuring to focus on core products (Investopedia)
• Electronics maker Panasonic is undergoing a corporate restructuring and plans to lay off 10,000 employees, about 4.3% of its global workforce, with half of the cuts in Japan (Manufacturing Dive)

 👋 Thanks for reading!