In this week’s issue:
- 📊 Commercial staffing hours hit a year-to-date high the week of Feb. 28.
- 🤖 Findem is acquiring Glider AI to build an end-to-end AI hiring platform, explicitly positioning to cut staffing firm suppliers out of the chain.
- 🎯 Worker confidence in tech skills fell 14 percentage points year-over-year, even as 65% of employers poured money into AI.
- 📋 Indeed’s single-source feed policy takes effect March 31.
📊 Staffing hours are holding, bucking a historical pattern
- U.S. temp staffing hours reached year-to-date highs in the week ending Feb. 28, rising 2.4% after the Presidents’ Day dip. Commercial hours climbed 3% year-over-year, their strongest YoY performance since late 2024. Professional hours rose 4.1% WoW but remain down 1% YoY. The Conference Board’s Help Wanted OnLine index remains negative YoY, keeping demand signals mixed. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Unlike 2024 and 2025, late January wasn’t the peak this year. The next 13 holiday-free weeks will reveal if this growth is a genuine shift or a temporary spike.
📉 The February jobs picture: solid headline, weak undercurrent
- ADP reported 63,000 private-sector jobs added in February, the strongest month since November 2025. Construction and Education & Health Services led growth. But Professional & Business Services shed 30,000 jobs. Pay rose 4.5% YoY for job-stayers, while the pay premium for job-switchers hit a record low. (Learn more)
- January JOLTS showed job openings edging up to 6.9 million, a small improvement from December’s upwardly revised 6.6 million, but the quits rate remains stubbornly low. Workers aren’t moving, and the low-hire/low-fire dynamic that defined 2025 is carrying into 2026. (Learn more)
Why it matters: When switching jobs doesn’t pay and workers won’t quit, temp and contract placements become the primary route for workforce flexibility, on both sides of the desk.
🤖 AI is targeting the staffing supply chain, not just the talent pipeline
- Findem announced plans to acquire Glider AI, combining talent discovery with skills validation, AI-powered interviews, and identity verification into a single platform. The company explicitly positioned the deal as a play to disrupt the $650B global staffing market by consolidating functions “traditionally handled by multiple vendors.” Findem is also introducing outcome-based pricing tied to hires. (Learn more)
- Curately and Tracker announced a strategic integration connecting Curately’s AI candidate conversion platform with Tracker’s ATS/CRM to create an end-to-end AI-native staffing workflow from pipeline through payroll. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Findem’s move signals a blunt truth: enterprise AI platforms aim to bypass staffing suppliers entirely. Agencies providing fast, verified, and cost-effective talent retain a defensive edge, but the rest of the industry must take notice.
🎯 Workers don’t trust AI tools, and employers aren’t helping
- Randstad’s 2026 Workmonitor found that 98% of U.S. employers expect growth in the next year. Only 55% of workers share that optimism. Worker confidence in handling new technology fell to 64%, down sharply from 78% in 2025, a 14-point drop. Two-thirds (65%) of employers invested in AI over the past 12 months, but 48% of workers believe those tools benefit the company’s bottom line more than their own careers. (Learn more)
- ManpowerGroup’s 2026 Talent Shortage Survey found 69% of U.S. employers struggling to find talent, slightly below the global average of 72%, with AI skills now the hardest category to fill globally, overtaking traditional IT and engineering for the first time. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Corporate AI investment is outstripping workforce adaptation. Firms that bridge this gap via upskilling and verified placement will become essential to clients struggling with this misalignment.
📋 Indeed’s single-source feed deadline is March 31
- Indeed’s single-source feed policy begins March 31. Employers must consolidate multiple job feeds into one source, forcing teams to update ATS workflows. However, there’s a deeper issue: heavy job board reliance misses the 74.4% of the market that is passive. Reaching this majority requires investment in employer branding and talent communities. (Learn more)
Why it matters: If your client’s pipeline runs through multi-source feeds, the clock is running out. Use it as an opening to talk about talent attraction strategy beyond job boards, before someone else does.
The StaffingHub Brief provides weekly insights for staffing agency leaders and publishes every Friday. Want to get essential staffing industry news delivered to your inbox? Sign up for our weekly and daily newsletters.
