RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Niv Bavarsky

While most of the country practically boiled during last week’s heat wave, the jobs report was unseasonably cool.

After three months of triple-digit job gains, employers added just 57,000 jobs in June, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest jobs report, below economists’ expectations of 115,000. The underwhelming employment gains delivered a blow to experts who anticipated a World Cup-driven boost to the US economy.

Diving into the data. June payroll gains were down 72,000 from May’s 129,000, revised down from 172,000. April job gains were also revised down to 148,000. Both months added 74,000 fewer jobs than the BLS originally estimated.

No World Cup boom. The World Cup was expected to bring a hiring boom to the US this summer. Ahead of the global tournament, FIFA predicted that the World Cup, hosted by 16 host cities in North America, including 11 in the US, would generate $47 billion ($30.5 billion specifically for the US) and 185,000 jobs. Yet the labor market report barely added more than that estimate in June.

For more on what HR needs to know about the latest jobs data, keep reading here.—PM

      

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HR STRATEGY

Kelsey Holthus

Here’s this week’s edition of our Coworking series. Each week, we chat 1:1 with an HR Brew reader. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Kelsey Holthus is a change maker. She doesn’t have 40 quarters for your ten-spot, but she’s bringing a change -management approach to her work in HR at the Minnesota-based identity, payments, and data security provider Entrust.

“I’ve always had more of a solution mindset, solution orientation, lean into problem solving, and I bring a lot of that to the work that I get to do in HR,” Holthus said. “I was leaning into areas around problem solving and efficiency, and really bringing more of a human lens to that around how people learn and adapt and change behaviors in order to make sure that any change initiative sticks.”

Entrust is “probably more complicated than we—maybe—seem for our relative size,” she told HR Brew. The company has nearly 3,500 employees and contingent workers across more than 20 locations, serving over 150 countries. Holthus leads a global team of 70 HR pros in its centers of excellence, HRBPs in offices all over the world and out in the field, and a growing HR operations and technology team.

Holthus sees talent, culture, and leadership as key facilitators for change, and as Entrust—like just about every other company out there, right now—navigates the AI transformation, her approach to help drive real meaningful change across the growing company.

For more from our conversation with Holthus, keep reading here.—AD

      

TECH

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, Ludovic Marin/Getty Images

After spending the last year warning that AI would wipe out jobs, tech CEOs—including Sam Altman and Dario Amodei—are suddenly striking a much sunnier tone. The jury’s still out on whether the rosier spin is a real rethink or damage control as public opinion on AI sours.

What happened? Amodei kicked off the better vibes, saying in May that companies could accomplish more with AI instead of turning to layoffs—just one year after he predicted that AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs. (Though, ever the optimist, he still hasn’t ruled out “enduring job loss.”) Altman also admitted on CNBC that the industry “underestimated how much we’re going to be able to keep people at the center of everything.”

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman, and Mark Zuckerberg have similarly all dialed back the gloom lately, with Zuckerberg noting, “In theory there should be more jobs in the future, not less.” The new narrative, should you choose to believe it, has flipped from “AI will take your job” to “AI will make you better at it.”

The layoffs could say otherwise. What makes this about-face a little awkward is that major tech layoffs are still happening.

For more on how AI is affecting the labor market, keep reading on Tech Brew.—WK

      

Sponsored By Indeed

Welcome to the new era of AI in hiring. Indeed FutureWorks gathers hiring leaders to unpack the balance between AI and human judgment in recruiting. Register now to hear from speakers like Red Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun and AI expert Ethan Mollick. Save your spot at the free virtual experience.

work perks

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Job cuts by US employers fell 53% last month to 45,849. (Challenger, Gray & Christmas)

Quote: “Managers don’t have to edit themselves, so they’re just dumping the kitchen sink in there. They’re dumping in nice-to-haves, could-haves, and passing thoughts they had in the shower this morning.”—Marc Cenedella, CEO of the online job board Ladders, on job descriptions’ growing wordcounts (Business Insider)

Read: After some companies rushed to mandate an RTO following the Covid-19 pandemic, many employees now struggle to get work done in the noisy, social office environments in which they’re required to work. (Fast Company)

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