AI in TA: Utilization With No Documentation.
Happy Friday Job Board Doctor friends!
The sun is shining, as usual, in our lovely Portuguese village, padel is calling and there is a lot to catch up on this week.
Let’s dive in!
- Jobcase Restructure
- UKG Layoffs
- Entry-level Comeback?!?
- What Does it All Mean?
Jobcase Company-wide Restructure
Based on multiple LinkedIn posts from former Jobcase employees, last week the company executed a company-wide cost savings restructure.
We do not have details of the number of employees impacted by the Reduction in Force (RIF) action. Based on a search of the Massachusetts WARN database, there is no record of a filing by the Cambridge headquartered company.
However, according to one LinkedIn post the RIF impacted, “a large part of the company.”
With Goff’s departure in early April and the interesting slide-ins of former Jobcase veterans Ben Kuntz and Donald Mannio into Advisor roles. Jobcase seems poised or potentially already in process of some sort of acquisition.
Keep your eyes on this space, for sure.
UKG Cuts headcount by 950
UKG cut roughly 950 jobs on April 15 (about 6% of its workforce), with about 600 exiting immediately and 350 staying through an August 31 transition. The company attributed the cuts to AI-driven market shifts and customer expectations under CEO Jennifer Morgan’s “AI-first” transformation.
This follows a late-2024 reduction of 2,200 employees (14 percent of the then 15,000 person workforce), bringing total post-merger reductions to more than 3,100 jobs Layoffhedge.
Other tech layoffs announced this week:
- Meta: up to 8,000 planned while closing 6,000 unfilled roles. (NYT)
- Snap: 1,000 cuts following activist investor pressure (ABC San Fransisco)
- GoCardless: 90 UK fintech roles (CityAM)
Context for 2026 layoff pace: Layoff trackers diverge on their methodology but align on trajectory. Crunchbase/TrueUp puts 2026 at roughly 95,000 to 100,000 tech workers impacted through April 22, running ahead of 2025’s daily pace.
Oracle’s cut of 30,000 despite strong Q3 earnings remains the defining example of the “healthy financials, AI-driven cuts” pattern.
Although there may be more to this story, as Yahoo Finance is reporting the new CFO received $26 million in stock following the layoffs.
Entry-Level SIGNS OF LIFE?
Entry-level hiring signals flipped more positive this week.
NACE’s Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update, released this week from data collected February 12 through March 17, shows employers expect to boost Class of 2026 hiring by 5.6%, up from the 1.6% projection in NACE’s fall survey.
More than one-third of employers now report plans to bring in additional hires.
ZipRecruiter’s 2025 graduate report, released April 23, shows internship postings on its platform up 32% year-over-year, concentrated in white-collar fields.
McKinsey plans a 12% increase in North American hiring in 2026 with an explicit emphasis on entry-level.
IBM is tripling US entry-level hiring this year.
BLS numbers back the turn. Unemployment for workers ages 20 to 24 with a bachelor’s degree or higher fell to 6.2% in January 2026, down from 9.5% in September 2025.
An interesting twist caught my eye from the same NACE Spring Update: more than one-third of entry-level jobs now require AI skills in their job descriptions, nearly triple the share from fall 2025.
The jobs are coming back. What “entry-level” actually looks like is not the same job it was six months ago.
WHAT iS THIS WEEK TELLING US?
The signals this week don’t line up, and that’s the story. UKG cuts 950 in the name of AI transformation. Entry-level hiring forecasts tick up 5.6%. More than half of employers say they’re eyeing AI to absorb what new grads used to do. Oracle posts strong earnings and cuts 30,000 anyway.
59% of HR teams are already using AI in Talent Acquisition. Only 7% have a documented strategy for it.
That is 52% of your peers buying tools, flipping switches, and hoping the outputs don’t just hold up in court, but also don’t miss the vital talent their companies need to succeed.
AI’s impact on hiring and employment, overall, isn’t a straight line. It ebbs, it flows, it moves in opposite directions at the same time depending on the function, the quarter, and who’s doing the counting. Anyone selling you a tidy narrative is selling you something.
One or Two more things
A couple of more items worth mentioning before we go.
Jobiqo has announced a partnership with 8vance. The goal of the partnership appears to focus on bringing together skills-based recruitment and the marketing-based tools vital to keep job seekers activated and engaged. Read the full announcement here.
Last week, I joined Jessica Miller-Merrell of Workology to discuss one of my favorite subjects, the impact of changes at Indeed.
Tell me what you think. Am I being too hard on them? LOL.
Until Next Time,
Julie “The Doc” Sowash
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