Staffing, Recruiting & HR Tech

Providence, Rhode Island – September 29, 2026 -- Applications are open now for Year Up United's Customer Experience career pathway in Providence, set to begin September 29, 2026, coinciding with a 20-year employer partnership with Citizens that has placed more than 400 interns since 2005.

Rhode Island's labor market weakens despite August job gains

Data from the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training shows 12,500 fewer residents employed than a year ago, even as the state added jobs in August. Labor force participation continues to shrink, tightening the on-ramp for young adults entering the workforce without a bachelor's degree.

Jacksonville, Fla. – September 28, 2026 -- The U.S. independent workforce reached a record 74.9 million people in 2026, driven by a 114% surge in full-time independent professionals since 2020, according to the 16th annual State of Independence study released by MBO Partners by Beeline.

Full-time independents now account for 22% of all full-time U.S. workers

That share is nearly double the level recorded in 2019, marking a structural shift from supplemental gig work toward independence as a primary career path. Among independent professionals surveyed, 78% plan to remain independent or scale a larger business, with nearly six in 10 intending to continue working independently and one in five aiming to grow their operations.

Alpharetta – September 25, 2026 -- Hoonr, an AI-first Workforce Orchestration platform, has secured three Fortune 500 enterprise clients within five months of its April 2026 launch, spanning life sciences, professional services and engineering sectors.

Three Fortune 500 firms select Hoonr's AI sourcing and analytics tools

The wins mark early validation for the platform's Direct Sourcing and Workforce Orchestration capabilities, which target enterprises managing fragmented technology stacks across their talent operations.

Hoonr launches full-cycle Freelance Management System for global contractor operations

The new FMS covers sourcing, engagement, onboarding, management and analytics for independent talent worldwide, positioning Hoonr to compete for enterprise budgets currently split across disconnected freelance tools.

Leeds – September 24, 2026 -- Noto Group, an executive search and leadership advisory firm serving consumer brands across North America and Europe, has appointed Kirsty Schofield and Cody Johns as Senior Partners, expanding the firm's global consumer leadership practice.

Schofield brings 15 years of UK-based search experience to fashion, beauty and wellness mandates

Schofield, a founding member and shareholder of PartnerWise, built a senior-level search practice serving consumer brands across Europe, Asia and North America. She holds Hogan assessment certification and will work alongside Senior Partner John Copeland to extend Noto Group's international reach in fashion, lifestyle, beauty and wellness sectors.

Palo Alto, Calif. – September 23, 2026 -- Companies offering AI-specific skills training jumped from 25% to 58% over the past year, but 56% of employees still say they get no time during work hours to build those skills, according to Workera's 2026 State of Skills Intelligence Report.

AI training spending rises sharply across U.S. enterprises

The survey of 1,000 salaried employees at U.S. organizations with 5,000 or more staff found 80% now believe their company is on track for an AI-enabled future, up from 67% in 2025. Employees using AI tools multiple times per week rose from 40% to 68% year-over-year, and companies feeling confident about their competitive AI position climbed from 19% to 30%.

Chicago – September 22, 2026 -- Republic Business Credit has provided a $750,000 factoring facility to a temporary staffing firm based in the Southeast United States, marking the first funding deal to originate from its newly announced partnership with Meritus Capital.

Republic structures $750,000 facility for staffing firm's cash flow needs

The staffing company, which uses technology-driven recruitment strategies, will use the funding to take on larger clients, add recruiters, expand into new markets and manage payroll obligations without cash flow constraints tied to the cyclical nature of the staffing sector.

San Francisco – September 22, 2026 -- Handshake, the career network for the AI economy, has launched AI Skills Studio, a free learning hub offering hands-on AI projects to more than one million employers on its platform. The tool was built with partners including Clay, Figma, Gamma, Google, Lovable, Notion, OpenAI, Replit, Salesforce, Southern New Hampshire University, and Vercel.

Job seekers complete AI 'missions' in 10 to 45 minutes using real practitioner tools

AI Skills Studio offers personalized, project-based missions that produce a tangible output, ranging from automated workflows to working software. An AI Skills Instructor guides learners through the process, and early users have built interactive games, data dashboards, personal portfolios, and sales and marketing tools.

Redwood City, Calif. – September 22, 2026 -- Findem has launched Findem Studio, a suite of AI agents designed to deliver finished, evidence-backed people-analytics work rather than raw data or search results. The platform is now available for free trial at studio.findem.ai/solutions.

Studio agents produce succession plans, market maps and benchmarks with supporting evidence

Findem Studio combines the company's proprietary people intelligence with AI agents built on methodologies from named practitioners. Outputs include succession plans, leadership benchmarks, hiring briefs, skills gap analyses, org charts and CHRO and VP of Talent Acquisition benchmarks. Rather than returning a candidate list for a succession plan, for example, an agent evaluates potential successors against expert-defined criteria and produces a plan with documented rationale that teams can review, challenge and refine before acting.

Greenwich, Conn. – – September 22, 2026 -- Hunt Scanlon Ventures, an M&A advisory firm focused on human capital markets, has completed an investment in millionways, a New York-based AI lab building what it calls a behavioral intelligence layer for artificial intelligence systems.

millionways built a proprietary Large Psychology Model to decode human behavior

The company's platform, Thorsten-4, is designed to interpret human signals, motives, communication patterns and behavior for use in AI governance, executive hiring, talent management, leadership assessment and broader enterprise settings. Thorsten-4 draws on more than a decade of proprietary psychological research and 35 million tagged words of behavioral data, according to the company, which is led by co-founders Martin Cordsmeier and Max Weidemann.

New York – September 22, 2026 -- Prospect HQ, a career platform connecting student-athletes with employers, has launched an iOS app that gives its network of nearly 300 colleges and universities direct mobile access to job matching and profile tools.

Network reaches nearly 300 colleges since January 2026 launch

Prospect HQ went live in January 2026 and has since built an active community of current and former student-athletes drawn from close to 300 colleges and universities. The platform matches candidates to open roles based on self-described goals and cultural fit, aiming to reduce time spent on broad job searches.