Welcome to The Hero 🗞️. This is approximately a 3-minute read.
🫀 Why the job market doesn’t match your pulse
🎓 Where all the graduates and layoffs actually went
💡 How to recruit when you're hiring on the wrong side of the split
TL;DR
The job market looks weak on paper. In reality, it shifted - some roles got flooded with candidates, others are harder to fill as ever.
Tech, remote-friendly, and entry-level roles got buried in applications. The same didn’t happen for onsite engineers, skill trades or niche roles.
If you're hiring for an onsite specialist, the "bad economy" means nothing to the person sitting across from you.
🫠 Two Markets. One Headline
You read the headlines…
LAYOFFS!
Hiring freezes.
Record numbers of new graduates entering the workforce.
Unemployment rate’s up.
So you walk into your next hire thinking you have the upper hand. Candidates need you right now… right?
Wrong.
Maybe if you're filling a remote marketing role or an entry-level analyst position.
But an quality onsite engineer, trades worker - or really anyone who works with their hands - is already employed, not applying to jobs, and quietly juggling two other offers.
Same economy. Completely different market.
The headline everyone's reading is about one side of the split.
The side you're hiring on might be the other one - where nothing got easier and nobody's lining up…
The full breakdown is just below - don’t miss it! 😉
Links of the Day:
🔗 Best Links
Here are some of the best links I’ve found since last time I emailed you:
🗺️ Interview Strategy
How to Conduct an Effective Interview: Tips for Hiring Managers (2026) (link)
Structured vs. Unstructured Interviews: What Works Better in 2026 (link)
🚀 Onboarding
Employee Onboarding: The Complete Checklist for New Hires (2026) (link)
Employee Onboarding Process in 2026: Step-by-Step Guide (link)
🎯 Candidate Experience
Building a Bridge to Talent: 10 Candidate Engagement Strategies (link)
Candidate Experience Benchmarks: What Good Looks Like in 2026 (link)
🔒 Employee Retention
Why Employees Leave: 2025 Retention Data and What to Do About It (link)
The True Cost of Employee Turnover in 2026 (link)
📉 Why One Side Is Flooded and the Other Is Empty
🎓 Graduates flooded one side of the market.
New grads poured into business, marketing, and tech roles over the last two years.
They all want remote work.
They're all applying to the same jobs.
And almost none of them trained for skilled trades, onsite engineering, or niche technical roles.
🤖 AI didn't replace who everyone thought it would.
It automated desk work - data entry, analysis, first-draft writing - and barely touched the roles that need someone physically there.
Demand for skilled trades is soaring, not dropping
🏢 Onsite requirements filtered out most of the available workforce.
Remote work trained an entire generation to expect it.
Require someone onsite five days a week, and you just eliminated most active job seekers.
⚡ The Playbook
1. Know which side of the split you're on.
If your inbox is full of strong candidates, you're on the flooded side.
Congratulations - take your time.
If you're posting and hearing crickets, or only getting unqualified applicants, you're on the other side.
2. Stop setting your offer based on the "bad economy."
Wages for skilled trades and onsite engineers have climbed 10-15% in the last four years - driven by scarcity, not the economy.
If you base your salary on "hiring should be cheaper right now," you've already lost before you hit send.
3. The graduate wave doesn't help you here.
More people entering the workforce sounds great - until you realize none of them are trained for your role.
The number of available workers for skilled trades, onsite engineering, and niche technical roles didn't grow.
It shrank. Recruit like it.
4. Sell the onsite requirement. Don't just list it.
"Must be onsite" in a job posting reads like a punishment to most candidates scrolling past it.
Flip it.
Talk about the team, the environment, the hands-on work, the career path that comes from being in the room.
Your ideal candidate (ICP) isn't the person looking for remote work anyway.
5. Go find them. They're not coming to you.
The good ones aren't applying.
They never were.
Reaching out directly - instead of waiting for applications to roll in - is the only thing that gets to them in any economy.
To Sum It Up…
The job market didn't get easier. It split.
One side got flooded with graduates, layoffs, and remote applicants.
The other side - skilled trades, onsite roles, niche hires - is just as empty as it was two years ago.
Know which side you're hiring on
And To Wrap It Up…
The headline says hiring is easy right now.
But what headline isn't filling your onsite roles 👀
HOW WE CAN HELP?
There are a few ways:
Or you can just reply to this email.
I reply to absolutely everyone who writes me back 🙂
