Samwise High Tech Recruiting Newsletter
Monday, August 10, 2026
TikTok Lays Off 250 Employees and Shuts Its Nashville Content-Moderation Office
TikTok laid off 250 employees and announced the permanent closure of its Nashville office, which housed members of the platform’s content-moderation team. The Nashville space, which TikTok leased in 2024, will shut on October 5. A spokesperson for TikTok’s USDS Joint Venture said the cuts were intended to streamline operations and better align teams for long-term growth. The layoffs reflect a broader industry shift: social media companies increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to flag and remove violent or explicit content, reducing the need for large human review teams. The cuts add to a significant body of tech workforce reductions in 2026.
Sources: TechCrunch
Etsy Eliminates 220 Positions in Restructuring, Cutting 12% of Its Workforce
Etsy announced on August 6 that it is eliminating 220 positions — about 12% of its total workforce — as part of a reorganization by CEO Kruti Patel Goyal. Most cuts will land in product and engineering, leaving Etsy with roughly 1,600 employees once the reductions are complete. Patel Goyal said the decision was not a cost-cutting measure and was not driven by AI, but rather aimed at removing overlapping responsibilities and management layers that had built up alongside the company’s historical growth. Departing employees will receive at least 16 weeks of severance. The restructuring is expected to close before Q3 ends and will generate roughly $35 million in charges.
Sources: EcommerceBytes
Tech Sector Added 3,700 Jobs in July With 603,000 Active Postings, CompTIA Reports
The U.S. technology sector added approximately 3,700 jobs in July, according to CompTIA’s August 7 workforce analysis. Growth was concentrated in cloud infrastructure, data processing and hosting, information services, and semiconductor manufacturing. Employer demand remained robust, with nearly 603,000 active job postings across all industry sectors, despite new postings easing 2% from June levels. Software developer roles led demand with 46,082 July postings; nearly 14,000 postings specifically sought AI and machine learning expertise. CompTIA projects net tech employment to grow by 1.9% across all of 2026, adding 185,499 new jobs and pushing the nation’s tech labor force toward 9.8 million workers.
Dice August 2026 Report: AI Skill Requirements Now Appear in 79% of Tech Job Postings
Artificial intelligence skill requirements now appear in 79% of U.S. technology job postings, up from 75% in June and 144% higher than the same period a year ago, according to Dice’s August 2026 Tech Jobs Report. Overall tech job posting volume fell 10% month-over-month in July — a pullback after months of steady expansion — though postings remain 10% above July 2025 levels. Among the fastest-growing skills, Organizational Change Management climbed 42% month-over-month, Quality Improvement rose 37%, and Responsible AI increased 21%. The report noted that AI fluency now sits at the center of most tech hiring rather than its margins.
SHRM Midyear Review: 68% of HR Professionals Report Difficulty Recruiting, AI Adoption Uneven
SHRM’s midyear review of its 2026 workplace predictions, published August 6, found that recruiting difficulties persist even as AI adoption in human resources accelerates. Nearly 68% of HR professionals reported difficulty recruiting full-time employees, with 53% saying hiring has become harder compared to a year ago. AI tools were most prevalent in recruiting workflows (27%), HR technology (21%), learning and development (17%), and employee experience (14%), though fewer than half of all organizations have deployed AI in HR functions overall. Talent acquisition processes are increasingly AI-first by default, with screening, scheduling, sourcing, and candidate communications increasingly handled by automated systems.
OPM Directs Federal Agencies to Put Tech and AI Talent Recruiting at the Center of Staffing Plans
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management directed federal agencies to make technology recruiting the centerpiece of workforce planning, issuing guidance that calls for reserving positions for specialists in artificial intelligence, data science, and cybersecurity. OPM Director Scott Kupor said planning for technology and planning for talent are no longer separate conversations. Agencies must complete internal data calls in August, finalize plans through Strategic Hiring Committees in September, and submit staffing documents by September 30. OPM also set a governmentwide goal of making at least 33% of all federal hires in fiscal 2027 early-career workers, and its Tech Force initiative has onboarded about 300 of a targeted 1,000 recruits so far.
Sources: Government Executive
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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