This week across Human Cloud

How the workforce is being rebuilt with agents and flexible talent

This week made one thing clear: the workforce isn't being cut. It's being rebuilt, with agents and flexible talent taking the seats full-time headcount used to hold.

First, Sebastian Alvarez, Co-Founder and CTO at Remotely, showed us the largest GitHub evaluation we've seen. His team analyzed the public commit firehose, then layered a human screen on top. 200,000 engineers evaluated, 8,000 accepted. That engine is Remotely's secret sauce for finding developer talent, and his take on hiring is blunt: the technical interview is obsolete. Screen for context, not code.

Then Rich Wilson, CEO and Co-Founder of Gigged.AI, launched The 40/40/20 Workforce live with the community. The 80-20 workforce is over. The enterprise number is 40% full-time, 40% on-demand specialists, 20% AI agents. Gigged.AI runs it: 8 full-time employees, a fractional bench nearly double that, and 282% growth in 12 months with zero new hires. The book launch episode is live now.

Both episodes land in a week where the data said the same thing. Temp help is the second-fastest-growing industry in 2026, and one in ten new jobs this year is a temp job.¹ Jobless claims fell to 203,000.²

And the full-time path just got more expensive. DHS proposed a $103,265 fee on every new H-1B petition.³ More work is heading to the on-demand layer, not less.

That 40% on-demand layer is where solutions get bought. Sebastian shows what a modern solution looks like under the hood. Rich gives the board the number for how much of the workforce that solution will own.

"I would stop doing the technical test. I don't think that the technical test has any value anymore, in the sense that writing code by hand is not a feature anymore." - Sebastian Alvarez

Don't believe us. Listen to these two episodes.

Listen to Sebastian »

Listen to Rich »

Ready to tell your own story? Book your podcast episode here »

From the Community Call

Yesterday was the Summer Blowout, the last prep session before a busy fall. Tony opened with the buyer side: 3,500 returning buyers a month, and the three things they're asking for this fall. Then the experts chimed in:

• Ray Culver (TALiNT Partners) on which fall events are worth your budget, and why the exhibition hall is dying.

• John Healy (WHRRR.WORK) on how a 30,000-person company built a two-click-to-talent program, and what it does to placement fees.

• Sarah Musgrove (The Bench) on rebuilding a production platform with AI, without a single engineer.

Members, the recording is in the community feed.

Join the community »

Where To Find Us Next

Invite only · 20 seats

HC Executive Dinner at CWS, Dallas

Tuesday, September 29 · 7:00 PM CT · Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse

Join Tony Buffum and Dr. Kelly Monahan, founding Managing Director of the Upwork Research Institute, for an exclusive executive dinner with 20 senior workforce leaders attending CWS Summit. Co-sponsored by FoxHire and KarmaCheck.

Request an invite »

How To Pick The Right EOR

Thursday, September 10 · 12:00 PM ET · Virtual

The EOR stopped being a back office vendor and became a growth lever. Matthew walks platforms through what makes a good EOR, what makes a good EOR partnership, and how the right one becomes a feature you can sell.

Save your seat »

SIA CWS Summit: Executive Briefing

Week of September 21 · Dallas · CWS Summit attendees

Forty-five minutes with your leadership team on the workforce for the agentic era. Reserved for CWS Summit attendees. Apply for a seat, or redeem your code if you've already been accepted.

Apply for a seat »