This week the labor market stopped whispering and started reporting. Challenger’s October print hit a two-decade high, with AI cited right alongside cost cutting. Translation: the pink slips are real, the reasons are changing, and the optics matter. If you thought “jobless boom” was a Twitter phrase, it is now a board agenda.
Meanwhile, the pipeline has a new leak. Palantir is hiring high-schoolers, Fortune is yelling about hard skills, and the debate over degrees is back. On culture, the office vs home argument is a decoy. The real drag is shaky middle management and performative hybrid rules. And while HR headlines usually get shunted to page 12, this week they belong on page one: talent is the make-or-break of transformation.
Helping HR, talent acquisition, employer branding, and company culture professionals find careers worth smiling about.
Here’s the cut: count AI’s impact with clarity, build skills-first pathways, train managers like you mean it, and let HR drive growth, not just policy.
This Week’s Paper Cut's
