Workday bleeds into all hours: Workers slid into the habit of working at all hours during the pandemic, when many worked from home. Though fewer people are fully remote now, many are still toiling into the night and say an expanding load of meetings, emails, and actual work are a big reason.  The number of meetings people logged after 8 p.m. over the 12 months through February, in fact, were up 16% from the year before, according to new data from Microsoft on the activity of millions of workers who use the company’s business applications. By 10 p.m., nearly a third of them were back in their inboxes after pausing for dinner or home duties. Many workers say the intensity is rising as companies slow hiring, trim costs, and add more tasks to roles. Adoption of artificial-intelligence tools at work isn’t far enough along to lighten the load for most. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. workers said they don’t use AI much or at all on the job in a Pew Research Center survey this year.  The average worker, the Microsoft survey found, gets 117 emails and 153 chats a day. Another reason more digital communication spills into off hours is a rise in cross-time-zone collaboration. About 30% of meetings span multiple time zones, up 8% since 2021.  Source: Wall Street Journal 6/17/25

Talent market becoming tighter: Nearly two in three HR leaders in the United States are anticipating increased talent competition despite signs of a softening labor market, according to a new report.  A Gartner survey among over 100 HR leaders in April 2025 found that 61% anticipate further competition for talent, particularly for front-line employees, due to the tariff policies of the Trump administration.  The findings come despite signs of a softening labor market, according to a separate Gartner poll among nearly 3,000 job candidates from January to March. It found that 35% of candidates backed out after accepting a job offer, down from the previous 48% in the same period last year.  The report also found that only 44% of job candidates received multiple job offers in their most recent hiring process, down from 51% in the first quarter of 2024. Getting higher compensation remains the top priority for jobseekers, as 53% of them cited it as the top offer decision driver in the first quarter of 2025. Having more opportunities for career growth came in second, as cited by 47% of the respondents. Better work life balance came in third at 45%: Source: HR Director 6/18/25

Employers rethinking hiring needs: A new survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals reveals that while most hiring managers (78%) still feel positive about their company's hiring outlook for the remainder of 2025, that optimism has dimmed since last fall, when 84% felt confident. However, only 58% of companies plan to increase their workforce in the second half of the year, a noticeable drop from 63 % in the fall of 2024. One-third of employers expect to hold steady, while 7 % anticipate cutting back. For those still planning to hire, the reasons are clear: they need to manage growing workloads (52%), fill newly created roles (49%) and replace employees lost to turnover (42%). But for others, the focus has shifted to tightening budgets. Among companies planning to reduce staff, more than half (54%) cite cost-cutting as the primary driver, followed by adapting to government policy changes (26%) and responding to declining demand (25%). The types of roles companies are targeting are also evolving. Full-time positions remain the most sought-after (81% down from 86% last fall). Part-time roles are gaining traction (28%), and hiring is now evenly split between entry-level and mid-level positions (50%e ach). Notably, entry-level hiring has dropped sharply from 68% in the spring of 2024. Source: CCH 7/24/25

Need an employee, hire boomerangs: Returning to work for a former employer, known as boomeranging, is back in vogue.  In March, boomerang employees made up 35% of new hires, up from 31% a year earlier, according to payroll provider ADP. Boomerang hiring comes in waves. It skyrocketed during the summer of 2020 as companies sprinted to bring back workers laid off during the pandemic shutdown that spring.  Then, in 2022, millions of workers quit their jobs during the Great Resignation. In March 2022, the quit rate was 3%, with 4.5 million workers voluntarily leaving their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The impetus in many cases was money. Wage growth for job switchers surged, as employers enticed workers with sweet compensation packages. Hardly anyone was looking back. Boomerang workers as a share of new hires sank to a low of 26%, per ADP.   Now, far fewer people are quitting their jobs. Quits dropped to 2% or 3.19 million workers in April. At the same time, boomerang rehiring has been steadily rising.  Source: Yahoo Finance 6/21/25

Do you view career gaps negatively? While recruiters scrutinize those mysterious six-month gaps on resumes, nearly half the workforce has been quietly nursing the same “flaw,” according to the latest research.  Career gaps are no longer the exception, they’re virtually the norm. Yet 3 out of 10 hiring managers still treat them like a scarlet letter, according to a survey of 1,000 workers by MyPerfectResume.  The disconnect is striking: 64% of candidates would rather play hide-and-seek with their work history than address gaps upfront. Only 1 in 5 will voluntarily explain a gap in application materials. The rest cross their fingers hoping HR won’t notice — or worse, craft workarounds that border on deception. Today’s interruptions tend to reflect a more complex reality, as the report points out. The most common reason, affecting 21% of gap-holders, is layoffs or company restructuring, hardly a personal failing in a volatile economy. Another 13% made strategic career pivots, while 12% each handled caregiving responsibilities or addressed burnout or mental health concerns. 30% still perceive hiring managers as gap-averse, creating a standoff where candidates hide information that might actually strengthen their profiles.  Source: Worklife 6/17/25

H-1B bill limiting universities introduced in Congress: Republican lawmakers are hoping to strip away the H-1B visa exception from college professors and higher education staff. Reps. Tom Tiffany (WI-07) and Andrew Clyde (GA-09) introduced the Colleges for the American People Act, or CAP Act, which would end the long-standing H-1B visa cap exemption for U.S. colleges and universities. If enacted, all prospective foreign hires, including administrators and professors, would be required to compete under the standard 65,000 visa cap. The legislation would not retroactively affect current visa holders. Universities could continue to extend existing H-1B visas under the current rules until the six-year limit, after which new hires would fall under the cap. The bill is pending.  USCIS received enough petitions to meet the H-1B visa cap as of last week for fiscal year 2026.  Source: Newsweek 7/28/25