What to do as power shifts to employers

By Kevin J. Delaney

Featured in today's newsletter:

What to do as labor-market dynamics shift power to employers
Confusion over new $100,000 fees for H-1B visas
Free peptide shots as office perk

AI and Work Radar

In June 2025, 27% of ChatGPT messages were work-related, compared to 47% one year prior, according to a recent NBER working paper. Writing was the most common work task, and two-thirds of writing requests asked ChatGPT to edit, critique, or translate existing text rather than generate entirely new text. The analysis also found that the AI gender gap has narrowed considerably. In the first few months after the chatbot was released, 80% of registered users had “typically masculine” first names, compared to 48% in June 2025.
AI is enabling teams to become larger, flatter, and more interdisciplinary, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia said recently. He pointed to his own team as an example: Huang currently manages over 50 direct reports.
Architects have started using AI to create videos and images to enhance their pitches to potential clients. The technology is allowing architects to draft concept documents much more quickly, at a higher level of detail, leaving humans more time to create narratives to accompany their pitches.
Two-thirds of adults who have used genAI say they’ve used it for financial advice, according to a survey from Intuit Credit Karma. User requests include creating detailed budgets, generating ideas for saving and making money, and picking stocks to buy. Experts advise users to use caution when using chatbots for financial advice, citing accuracy and privacy concerns.

Focus on What the Job Outlook Means for Talent Strategy and Careers

Recent US government data show that the job market is weaker than previously thought and the unemployment rate, at 4.3%, is at its highest level in almost four years. Many entry-level workers are struggling to find jobs, as employed Americans are hugging their current roles out of concern that it would be difficult to find something else.

To make sense of the implications of this jobs climate for both employers and white-collar workers, we reached out to Chris Martin, lead researcher at Glassdoor, the employer rating platform. Here are excerpts from our discussion, edited for space and clarity:

How would you characterize the outlook for hiring? What are the most significant questions you have about where we're headed?

The labor market has been frozen, and that has meant fewer people quitting their jobs—this 'job-hugging' trend of people being unsure about entering the labor market, and so sticking with the job that they have where they have some security—but it's also been slower on the hiring front too. You would think that there would be this pent-up demand and that it might be taking less time to fill roles, but we're actually seeing the opposite too. Our friends at Indeed are tracking time to fill a role, and that's actually been creeping up over the past 18 months. So not only do we have less quitting, but we have slower hiring. There's even been a downtick in the number of laid-off workers over the past six or eight months.

There are regime changes in terms of the set of rules that companies are operating under in terms of who you can hire, how you can import, which companies you can partner with, and what the cost of moving goods across borders will be. We don't even have resolution currently on what the tariff regime, for example, will look like in 12 months because it has been such a moving target. So what's been happening on both the company side and the employee side is that everyone has been in a wait-and-see game to see if we can get more information about what things will look like, what might be rolled back, or what actually does go through.

AI kind of fits into this same mold of 'we think it might be changing things a lot, but we're not quite sure how it's going to change hiring.' Additionally, we might be entering a labor market downturn, or a broader market downturn could be triggered by these regime changes.

What I think we'll start seeing over the next six months is the labor market starting to thaw, and then we'll see how much the labor market remakes itself, or the market more broadly remakes itself for this regime change.

What are the implications of the current jobs climate for employers and how should they rethink their talent strategy?

In the labor market, the power dynamics have shifted towards employers, but key talent is still relatively mobile. They've got the easiest chances at securing another job. They're most likely to leave. So even though you've got this 'job hugging,' I would say think about employees that you would really hate to lose and make sure you're still investing in retaining and motivating those employees. That's evergreen advice, but it's especially true today. You may see less voluntary attrition, but make sure you're still guarding against the attrition you would really dislike.

The second piece is you want to react but don't overreact. An overreaction is starting with hiring and firing. Those are big decisions. They're expensive decisions especially to roll back and so get really clear on your business strategy and then build a talent strategy that secures the future of that business strategy.

The thing I would guard against is firing a team or hiring a team for some half-baked initiative that you then need to roll back or realizing that you got rid of a whole team that you actually want to include in your function. It makes sense to move slowly.

What are the implications of the current jobs climate for white-collar workers? Do you have any advice for how they should be rethinking their career strategies?

It's an open debate, the degree to which white-collar work will be remade and the timeline that remaking will happen. What we do see in the data is that white-collar work is less insulated from economic turmoil than it has been in the past. It used to hold this privileged position where you were less likely to get laid off, you had an easier time finding new work if you did lose your job.

That premium that white-collar work holds in the market seems to be decaying a little bit. So if there is an economic downturn, white-collar workers are going to feel it more than they felt it in previous downturns. That seems to be clear in the data. But my advice to these workers would be similar to the advice I'd give to businesses, which is you want to react to the changing environment, but don't overreact.

Focus on your subject matter expertise, focus on building that expertise and applying it. If you're in the early career position, that's hardest because you may have some skills theoretically, but you don't have the domain expertise from having been in your line of business for years. So focus on finding a job that can help you start to build those skills and the network.

If we look back at the Great Recession, it was a really hard time to graduate from college and start your career then too. But many of us who graduated during that time have managed to find careers all the same and find meaning in work and build professional lives that are really gratifying.

What Else You Need to Know

New $100,000 fees for H-1B visas, imposed by the Trump administration and set to go into effect today, generated confusion and anxiety among US employers and visa holders.

The White House clarified Saturday that the fee only applies to new visas, rather than current visa holders or those renewing them. It said current H-1B visa holders can leave and enter the US as they normally would.
Prior to that clarification, some US employers reportedly had notified H-1B holders to remain in the US and, if traveling abroad, to return immediately so as not to be hit with $100,000 fees upon reentry.
The Trump administration said that IT workers hold the majority of H-1B visas, which are used to employ foreign workers with specialized skills.
The White House said it would waive the new fee on a case-by-case basis “if in the national interest.”

Following layoffs, employers’ Glassdoor worker ratings remain depressed for over two years after the initial job cuts, according to a new analysis.

For the median employer in the study’s sample, their rating percentile fell from slightly above average, at the 56th percentile down to the 41st percentile.
Some 71% of workers say that they would start looking for a new job immediately after a round of layoffs, even if they were spared, according to a survey from coaching and outplacement firm INTOO. Some 54% of workers said they don’t trust their employer to handle layoffs compassionately and ethically. (For advice, check out our guide to conducting more humane layoffs.)
While the official unemployment rate is 4.3%, a broader measure of unemployment that includes underemployed workers and discouraged workers who have stopped looking for jobs has risen to 8.1%, the highest level in four years.
Among workers who have been unemployed for longer than six months, about one-third hold college degrees, compared to about one-fifth 10 years ago. White-collar job cuts, increasing AI automation, and an increase in college-educated workers overall have all contributed to this trend.
Amid slowdowns in hiring for entry-level workers, stressed-out college students are applying for internships earlier and earlier. By winter break of their first year, 15% of the class of 2028 had applied to at least one summer internship, compared to 3% of the class of 2024 at the same stage.

Future of Work Speed Round

Some 39% of workers say they dread starting their workday, up from 23% in 2020, according to a survey from Alight, an employee benefits platform. Among respondents, 47% say they feel good about their overall wellbeing.
In 2024, 13.3% of US workers did their job primarily from home, compared to 13.8% in 2023, according to recently released census data. Between 2019 and 2024, the share of workers working remotely more than doubled, with the highest concentrations of remote workers in the Boulder, CO; Raleigh-Cary, NC; and Austin-Round Rock, TX metropolitan areas.
Companies are firing workers over online comments related to Charlie Kirk’s death. Workers in industries as diverse as food services, airlines, and education have been fired after posting comments online mocking the conservative figure’s murder or highlighting his divisive views. Vice president JD Vance encouraged Americans to report comments to employers, saying, “When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out—and hell, call their employer.”

Here are some of the best tips and insights from the past week for managing yourself and your team:

Make your goals tangible. To stay motivated to achieve a distant goal, try placing an object in your workspace that represents future success, whether that’s a storyboard, trinket, or image.
Take the buddy system to the next level. While many organizations assign new hires a “buddy” to act as an informal guide outside the recruit’s reporting structure, the Marines have a model that builds on the original pairs by forming four-person fire teams from two buddy teams, 12-person squads from three fire teams, and 36-person platoons from three squads. Even if your cohort of new hires is too small to build an entire platoon of first-year associates, look for opportunities to fit buddy pairs into a larger collective through breakout sessions, lunch and learns, and other activities.
Assign AI “red-teaming” assignments. To prevent AI use from eroding critical thinking, some banks ask early-career analysts to critique AI outputs as part of their training. The exercises involve presenting findings to senior colleagues, from incorrect assumptions and false data to logical flaws and missing context.
Invest in training and promotions now. Amid a cooling labor market, 57% of job seekers say they feel stuck, according to a survey from HR platform Workday. Employers can address those feelings of stagnation by offering upskilling opportunities, internal promotions, and other initiatives that help workers grow in their careers.

Coda

A prick as an office perk. As the popularity of grey-market, injectable peptides rises among wellness-obsessed Silicon Valley tech workers, one startup has offered employees free injections of experimental compounds meant to boost immune function, cellular repair, and more.

Superpower cofounder Max Marchione told the San Francisco Standard that the free shots started as a joke but caught on after they boosted in-office attendance. Marchione’s own peptide regimen includes three daily shots, sourced via a Chinese peptide dealer.

A meeting that will make you sweat. New wellness clubs offering saunas and cold plunges are increasingly targeting a professional clientele looking to optimize both their health and their performance at work. Some members have started bringing coworkers to sweat it out over a business meeting or cold plunge with the entire team.