It’s a hard-knock life labor market for job-seekers right now, and employers are only making it worse. That’s according to Workday’s newest Global Workforce Report, released on Tuesday. The research is based on internal Workday data, and a survey of more than 1,000 managers and business leaders conducted with Hanover Research.

Things are heating up. Workday’s latest data reflects what job-hunters have lamented this year: competition for jobs is getting harder. The share of global applications on Workday’s platforms grew by 31% in the first half of 2024, compared to the same period the year prior. Applications grew four times faster than hiring demand, which grew by 7%, according to Workday’s data, while the number of offers made changed little from the year prior.

At the same time, employers seem to be raising the bar for candidates, in part to help alleviate recruiting teams’ burden of parsing an increasing volume of applications. Nearly three-fourths (72%) of leaders surveyed by Workday and Hanover Research for its report said they were raising qualification and experience requirements for candidates, and 59% expect this trend to continue over the next year.

Overlooking flight risks. While employers increasingly focus on upping the ante for job seekers, they also face losing their key employees. Around 75% of industries tracked by Workday saw an increase in turnover for high-potential employees.

Keep reading here.—PM

HR ain’t getting any easier. From the rapid rise of AI to economic pressures to a much more distributed, diverse workforce, it’s a lot for people professionals to keep up with.

Luckily, Leapsome is close to releasing the annual Workforce Trends Report—and you can sign up to get a copy as soon as it launches. The 2024 edition will feature brand-new data on the impact of the difficult business climate, AI and automation, changing work structures, and tooling challenges.

Together with Opinium, Leapsome surveyed 2,500 global professionals to learn about their evolving needs and ways of working. Here are just two striking stats they discovered: 85% of HR leaders are under pressure to reduce their spend or budget, and 58% struggled to get budgets approved last year.

Sign up so you don’t miss out.

With less than two months until Election Day in the US, politics seems to be seeping into the office, whether employers like it or not.

More than one-third (35%) of US millennial and Gen Z workers surveyed by Indeed admitted that they talk about politics at work, and 44% have heard others discuss it. Despite this, 54% of respondents said they’re “uncomfortable” with it being discussed in meetings.

Chief Human Resources Officers (CHRO) have largely taken a “hands off” approach to political discussions in the workplace, according to a 2024 survey of HR leaders by the University of South Carolina. Employers, it found, are more likely to remind workers how to engage in respectful political conversations.

Still, 16% of Indeed respondents said they’ve avoided colleagues with different political beliefs.

Keep reading here.—KP

The tech industry may be facing a labor cooldown, but that doesn’t mean the whole sector is struggling. In fact, information technology (IT) is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the US, according to Indeed.

Eric Lund, head of global recruitment at IT firm Kaseya, which expects to be the sixth-largest software company by 2030, has experienced this growth. Its global staff has ballooned from 1,500 when Lund joined in 2021 to nearly 5,000 today. As the company continues to expand, Lund plans to stay in lockstep with that growth—which is no simple feat.

Lund currently oversees a team of 25 recruiters who support hiring for all levels of the company, though he expects his team to grow as well. His primary focus has been both ensuring his team is always evolving their recruiting practices, and that the talent they hire is a best match for the firm’s long-term strategy.

“The skill sets that you were using for 1,500 people are very different than the skill sets you’re going to be using when you’re 5,000 people. So as we continue to grow…what you’re doing is going to be different,” Lund told HR Brew. “Our organization has to reinvent itself every year, and it’s important that those people that we hire are able to scale and grow with our organization.”

Keep reading here.—PM

Simplify with AI. Think of the biggest hurdles in HR: making processes more efficient, decisions more data-driven, and workplaces more engaging and inclusive. In Paylocity’s guide, you’ll learn how AI can solve all those challenges. And in the process, you’ll get more time to focus on the human side of HR. Get your guide.