Samwise High Tech Recruiting Newsletter
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Tech Layoffs Hit 225,000 as Oracle’s SEC Filing Formally Blames AI
Tech layoffs crossed 225,000 in 2026 as of September 25, surpassing all of last year across 519 events — averaging 837 job losses per working day. The defining shift: Oracle became the first major tech company to formally attribute workforce cuts to AI in a legally binding document. Oracle’s annual SEC filing states that “the adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce.” Oracle cut roughly 21,000 workers — a 13% reduction — after borrowing $43 billion to build AI data centers. TD Cowen estimated those layoffs free up $8–$10 billion annually to service Oracle’s AI debt.
Sources: Tech Times
77% of New Grads Say Entry-Level Jobs Set the Bar Too High
A new Cengage employability report finds that 77% of recent U.S. graduates believe businesses demand too much experience for entry-level roles, and 75% say there simply aren’t enough truly entry-level opportunities. The survey, conducted April–August 2026, captured responses from 1,100 recent graduates and 931 full-time hiring managers across the U.S. Employers say they expect day-one impact and no longer have patience to train on basic skills. Now 35% of entry-level postings explicitly mention AI skills — shifting the bar further. Many postings labeled “entry-level” require two to three years of prior experience, making the term increasingly nominal for new degree-holders.
LinkedIn’s Hiring Assistant Takes Center Stage at Talent Connect 2026
LinkedIn’s annual Talent Connect conference opened September 28 at the Javits Center in New York City, with artificial intelligence as its organizing theme. CEO Dan Shapero headlined the opening keynote alongside author Brené Brown and astronaut Leland Melvin. LinkedIn VP Dan Reid’s session, “Work, Like Never Before: Reinventing Talent with Hiring Assistant,” focused on how the AI tool helps talent teams surface hidden candidates, accelerate hiring timelines, and convert one-off AI wins into repeatable, scalable outcomes. The three-day summit runs through September 30 with an invitation-only format for senior talent leaders; a free virtual broadcast is available globally.
Sources: LinkedIn Talent Connect
ServiceNow Executes 287-Job WARN Cut Across Two California Sites
ServiceNow formally executed layoffs affecting 287 employees across two California locations on September 28, 2026, pursuant to WARN Act notices filed with state authorities in July. The enterprise software company split the cuts between San Diego, where 133 workers were affected, and Santa Clara, where 154 were let go. The WARN Act requires employers to give 60 days’ advance notice before qualifying mass layoffs, dating the original July notification. The September 28 effective date makes these among the latest documented workforce reductions by a major tech company in what has been a record-setting year for industry layoffs.
Sources: WARN Tracker
Salary.com Launches SalaryTalent to Bring Pay Intelligence into Every Hiring Decision
Salary.com launched SalaryTalent on September 28, an AI-native talent management platform that puts compensation data at the center of recruiting, performance, and workforce decisions. Built on the company’s proprietary job ontology — 1.4 million leveled job titles, informed by data from more than 30,000 organizations across 140 countries — SalaryTalent surfaces real-time pay benchmarks, internal equity analysis, and labor market intelligence directly inside existing tools such as Microsoft Teams and Slack. Five initial products span recruiting, candidate sourcing, performance management, workforce management, and HR agent orchestration. CEO Yong Zhang said pay should be “the foundation of work” rather than the last field filled in.
Sources: GlobeNewswire
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency