Kelly

The U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs in April. So why does the job search still feel broken for so many people? The gap between "the economy is adding jobs" and "I can't get a callback" is real — and it has more to do with strategy than the market. This month's myKelly Insider covers how to move fast when you need a job immediately, how to find roles that actually fit (not just roles that look right on paper), and what's deciding offers in today's interviews, according to our recruiters.

"Recruiter-candidate relationships will continue to be human at their core." — Chris Layden, Kelly CEO Nearly 14,000 hiring managers and job candidates agreed. Forbes has once again recognized Kelly on their annual rankings of the top recruiting firms in the country: 🏆 America's Best Professional Recruiting Firms 🏆 America's Best Temporary Staffing Firms It's a reflection of what our teams do every day: connect the right people to the right opportunities, and show up for clients when it counts. Proof that the human connection at the center of what we do still wins. https://lnkd.in/edJVjDEd

There's a meaningful difference between a candidate who interviews well and a candidate who will perform well. Softworld, a Kelly Company's Jonathan Anderson has spent 25 years learning to tell the two apart. The biggest signal he found is specificity. Competent-seeming candidates describe what a technical process is. Strong performers describe: → what they individually did → how they applied it → what the results were Anderson's latest article is a practical guide for hiring managers who want to build interview questions that surface real capability. He covers how to evaluate soft skills in real time, why behavioral questions are part of the toolkit but no longer the whole toolkit, and what to do about the flood of AI-polished resumes that make every applicant look like a perfect fit.

The AI bill is coming, and most organizations aren't prepared for the "AI Tax" that comes with it. Token pricing, token bloat, consumption-based billing... these costs aren't affecting just the IT department anymore. As AI tools and use-cases spread across legal, HR, sales, and operations, the costs follow. Our Need to Know Briefing team pulled together the most important context on how AI actually gets priced, what companies are currently spending (some of the numbers are staggering), and what to do before the CFO starts asking questions. Here's how to get ahead of it while you still can: https://hubs.li/Q04fmBQr0

Congratulations to all 2026 winners and nominees and a tremendous THANK YOU to all substitute educators and providers for the impact you make on students and our society every day. "I believe in having purpose. I want to give everything I have. Even if I’m only in a classroom for one day, I know I have the chance to make some kind of impact—academic, emotional, or personal. As long as I’m here, I want to be fully engaged, fully present, and fully useful." - Esther Yardumian-Smyth, 2026 Substitute Educator of the Year

The Form I-9 is two pages. The USCIS manual explaining how to complete it correctly runs 74. Most compliance problems live somewhere in that gap. And with ICE audit volumes up at least 10x in 2025, the cost of letting that gap go unaddressed is higher than ever. Kelly's own Paul Champoux has managed employment compliance for 18 years and overseen more federal audits than he can count. For the first time, he's breaking down where employers most commonly go wrong, how to run an internal audit that actually protects you, and what the consequences of noncompliance look like beyond the fines. If your I-9 process hasn't been reviewed recently, this is a good place to start. Access the full breakdown in the comments. 🔗

Inclusion 🤝 Action This spring, Kelly team members are leading Best Buddies Friendship Walks in 11 U.S. cities to help build a more inclusive world for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. See you out there! 💚

In case you missed this week's edition of the Need to Know Briefing in your inbox, here is a quick recap of a few things worth noting:

Scammers used to be easy to spot. But now, AI is assisting in making them indistinguishable from the real thing. Understanding the job scam playbook helps you spot the con early on. Here is a quick 5-minute job scam verification checklist you can reference next time you receive a message about a job opportunity: > Check the domain the email is sent from. For instance, @kellyservices.com is real. @kellyservices1.com is a scam. @amaz0n.jobs is definitely a scam. > Search independently. Never click their links. Instead, go to the company’s actual website. No job listing? Probably no job. > Google “[company] + scam”. The FTC recommends this simple search, which takes 30 seconds and will let you know if this is a common scam. > Do a quick search for the recruiter name and company. Real recruiters almost always have a presence on LinkedIn you can use to verify their existence. > Report it to the FTC. This creates an official record, contributes to patterns regulators are already tracking, and is far more likely to result in action than an email to an HR team that may never surface it internally. If you have encountered a job scam message, learn how to officially report it here: https://hubs.li/Q04crZgz0

"The war for talent has ended and the talent has won." Workers build careers on their own terms now. They're building skills intentionally, curating their experience, and prioritizing flexibility. In response, organizations have had to evolve. What used to be a straightforward employee base is now a blended workforce – comprised of full-time employees, contractors, gig workers, and project-based talent, all working together. This shift in complexity is exactly why today's staffing agencies look nothing like they did 20 years ago. In his latest article, Kelly Vice President of Enterprise Workforce Solutions, Ben Decker, shares a clear breakdown of how modern staffing actually works – what different engagement models look like in practice, and what separates a transactional vendor from a true workforce strategy partner. https://hubs.li/Q04c89Z50