We’re running out of snappy ledes about how the labor market has roiled from economic challenges…and it seems we’re going to need to get creative.

While slightly more employers plan to hire in Q1 2026 than in Q4 2025, many anticipate continuing to hold off, citing economic uncertainty, a new ManpowerGroup survey found.

Forty-three percent of employers plan to increase their staff in Q1 2026, while 16% are planning reductions, according to the survey, which tracked responses from 6,000-plus employers in the US. Another 37% said they don’t anticipate changes.

By comparison, 41% of employers planned to hire in Q4 2025, while 13% anticipated cuts and 42% expected no changes. Similarly, looking year over year, 41% of employers planned to increase their ranks in Q1 2025, while 16% expected to decrease and 40% expected to stay constant.

For more on employers’ Q1 plans, keep reading here.—PM

As executives consider risks that could impact their businesses in the near future, CEOs and CHROs are aligned on a few things.

Both of these C-suite leaders ranked “talent and labor availability” and “skills and talent acquisition and retention, leadership development and succession challenges” as the top two near-term risks, according to a report recently published by the global business consulting firm Protiviti.

CEOs’ and CHROs’ top near-term risks differed somewhat from the overall survey results, which drew upon responses from 1,540 board members and C-suite executives, and was conducted with North Carolina State’s Poole College of Management.

Taken as a whole, “cyber threats” and “third-party risks” ranked first and second among respondents who were asked about the most pressing issues facing their businesses in the near-term. Though CEOs’ and CHROs’ top areas of concern differed somewhat from their peers, all of these risks point to the different ways business leaders are responding to the emergence of AI.

For more on what HR can glean from CEOs’ and CHROs’ top areas of concern, keep reading here.—CV

Higher-paid workers will have greater chances of being selected for the H-1B visa program under a new rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last month.

On Dec. 23, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the DHS was amending the process for H-1B visa recipient selection from a random lottery to one that “gives greater weight to those with higher skills.”

Starting on Feb. 27, 2026, H-1B visa applicants will be categorized by their earnings levels, based on the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, according to the DHS rule. Those at the highest wage level—level IV—will be entered into the lottery four times, while those at level I will be entered just once.

The DHS rule is the latest change that will affect employers preparing for the H-1B cap lottery registration season for FY 2027, which will take place this March.

For more on what HR needs to know about this new policy, keep reading here.—CV

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