😃 Smile, you're at work!

👋 Happy Thursday! What were you up to at 3:00 AM this Monday? Union reps for employees at Vogue were hard at work inking a deal with Condé Nast management on a long-anticipated contract amidst fears of employee disruptions at the Met Gala that same night. Talk about a close call: That’s just 15 hours before Zendaya graced the red carpet with her first look (and 17 hours before her second). 📸

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Please let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

— Team RecruitmentMarketing.com ✨

Today’s edition is a 5-minute read. Here’s what to expect👇

🗞️ Good news, bad news on employee satisfaction
🌎️ Poll says candidates care about sustainability
💰️ Hired.com shuts down; Kelly’s half-a-billion deal
💻 TA roles at Chewy, The Associated Press
💼 Layoffs at Bakkt, Sprinklr

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This week, The Wall Street Journal reported on new survey data from business-research group The Conference Board, giving us a peek into the current state of job satisfaction.

The main takeaway …
… is generally good. When asked how they feel overall about their jobs, most U.S. workers are positive, with 62.7% saying they are satisfied. This marks the highest job satisfaction rating since the Conference Board began asking the question in 1987.

But when you dig deeper …
… the news isn’t as smiley. Researchers say that satisfaction may have plateaued, and raised concerns about a widening gap in job satisfaction between men and women (65% of men say they are happy in their jobs compared with 60% of women). And while overall satisfaction is at a record high, U.S. workers say they are less content than last year across all of the specific subcomponents of job satisfaction — things like wages, promotion policies, benefits, and bonuses.

Huh? 
It’s a head-scratcher, for sure. “We’ve never had a year where we’ve had that paradox,” said Allan Schweyer, a principal researcher at the Conference Board, told The Wall Street Journal. The report said it seems like workers are increasingly prioritizing positive work culture and experience over compensation, suggesting a shift in what drives satisfaction and retention.

Reasons to 😃 and reasons to 😢.
The state of the market typically shapes how most workers (and consumers) feel. On the positive side, we know unemployment has been chilling below 4% since 2022, and wages are now (finally) rising faster than prices. At the same time, other conditions aren’t fantastic: A rise in prices since the pandemic has made consumers nervous, high mortgage rates and home prices are blockers for aspiring homeowners, and everyone—it seems—wants a new gig (according to a LinkedIn poll, 85% of U.S. professionals are considering looking for another job).

Yet another gender gap.
Even with companies rolling out perks like on-site daycare and mental health support, the ladies in the survey weren't feeling as great about their jobs as the men—for the sixth year running. And for women especially, a shift back to in-person work might feel like a bigger bummer, as bosses keep nudging everyone to clock in at the office more often (overall, the survey found that hybrid and remote workers are among the happiest workers). We also know that the recruitment process can be a daunting venture for women: A recent survey from RecruitmentMarketing.com and The Muse showed that 42% of women said they encountered gender-biased or inappropriate questions during a job interview. As a result, we may be seeing women remain in roles they aren’t happy with, driving their reported satisfaction rates lower than their male counterparts.

📥️ Read more in The Wall Street Journal

NUMBERS

Numbers That’ll Make You Think

• 50% — The percentage of poll respondents who answered "no" or "only if the pay is good" when asked if they would work for a company without a sustainability strategy, Anna Robertson, CEO of The Cool Down, said in a guest contributor piece (RecruitmentMarketing.com)

• 3 — The number of positions open for hire at Tesla right now, according to its careers page, after a series of layoffs and the elimination of nearly 3,400 open roles (Steve Levy via LinkedIn)

• 4 — The number of days in the workweek if you work at Exos, according to its CEO, who allows employees to take off Fridays in an effort to reduce burnout (CNN)

• 46% — The percentage of U.S. workers who say they’re considering quitting in the year ahead, higher than the 40% who said the same ahead of the “great resignation” in 2021 (CNBC)

• 6% — The percentage of in-person and remote workers who say they nap daily on the job (Fortune)

• $650,000 — The fine levied on sanitation company Fayette Janitorial Service after a federal investigation found it illegally hired at least two dozen children to clean meat processing facilities in Iowa and Virginia (CNBC)

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

M&A Deals, Industry Moves, & Other Things To Know

• Job site Hired.com, once valued at $500 million, is shutting down to be folded into the recruitment solutions business of the Adecco Group, the Swiss staffing firm that acquired the platform in 2020 (SIA)

• On Tuesday, RecruitmentMarketing.com hosted a webinar on the importance of marketing your company’s sustainability strategy to candidates, with panelists from Kimberly-Clark, NYU Stern, The Cool Down, and Cox Enterprises (RecruitmentMarketing.com)

• HR tech company Employ announced the appointment of Dara Brenner to Chief Product Officer, effective May 1 (HR Tech Feed)

• Software giant Intuit appointed a “head of employee listening” on its HR leadership team, who spoke to Fortune about role and the science of worker feedback (Fortune)

• HR technology company Nexxt.com announced the launch of a new platform designed to streamline the sourcing process (RecruitmentMarketing.com)

• HR consulting service Kelly Services will acquire Motion Recruitment Partners for $425 million, marking the largest deal in the company’s history (SIA)

• Employee communications startup ChangeEngine announced it has raised $10 million in Series A funding (HR Tech Feed)

A MESSAGE FROM PUBLIC INSIGHT

Talent Intelligence – Turn Insights Into Income

Talent market intelligence is a strategic tool to help solution providers increase income by identifying prospects, preparing sales pitches, expanding product/service offerings, and creating high-value content. Targeted insights on job postings, time-to-fill, supply/demand, ad indicators, comp and employer reputation plus local and industry competitive benchmarks uncover employer opportunities and challenges.

Learn more from Public Insight 📥️ 

OPEN ROLES

Jobs You Might Want (For Yourself!)

• Rideshare platform Lyft is hiring a Chief of Staff to the Chief People Officer, based in San Francisco, CA

• Research organization The Breast Cancer Research Foundation is hiring a Chief Human Resources Officer, based in New York, NY

• Online pet retailer Chewy is hiring an Human Resources Business Partner, based in Plantation, FL

• News outlet The Associated Press is hiring a Senior Recruiter, based in New York, NY

• Aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin is hiring a Technical Recruiter, based in Denver, CO

• Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson is hiring a Head of Talent Acquisition for Robotics & Digital, based in Santa Clara, CA

• Fast food chain Taco Bell is hiring a Human Resources Field Recruiter, based in Maryland Heights, MO

For more of these roles delivered to your inbox every Monday, subscribe to the RecruitmentMarketing.com Weekly Jobs newsletter by clicking here.

LAYOFFS

Places For You To Source Fresh Talent

• Crypto platform Bakkt will lay off 28 employees, or around 13% of its headcount, after a volatile few years post-IPO (SeekingAlpha)

• Customer experience management platform Sprinklr laid off about 3% of its workforce, around 116 people, to realign its customer operations team (TechCrunch)

• Lidar company Luminar is slashing its workforce by 20%, affecting around 120 employees (TechCrunch)

• Biotech company Cue Health is enacting a new cost-cutting strategy that will lead to the termination of 230 employees, or about half of its workforce (Becker’s Hospital Review)

• Battery developer Enovix is laying off one-third of its employees, or about 130 people, in a larger effort to reduce annual costs by $35 million (The Information)

• Fintech startup Simpl laid off around 170 of its staff—about 15% of its company—across departments and roles (MoneyControl.com)

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