Join me in Dallas. Then read this.

Join me in Dallas. Then read this.

Before the numbers this week, a personal invite. I will be in Dallas for SIA's CWS Summit at the end of September, and I would like to sit down with you while I am there. Two ways to do it:

Option 1 · Tuesday, September 29 Dinner with Dr. Kelly Monahan Twenty contingent workforce leaders at Del Frisco's. Kelly, the founding Managing Director of the Upwork Research Institute, opens the evening on where workforce strategy is actually heading. No slides, no pitch. Request a seat →

Option 2 · Your team, your slot A private Executive Briefing One session for your leadership team on flexible talent, talent platforms, and the increasingly independent workforce, built on what we see across the market every week. Book a briefing →

Now, why both matter this quarter. US business activity just grew at its fastest pace since 2022.^[1] The same week, JPMorgan's layoffs hit an 11-year high.^[2] Growth and cuts are now running in the same building, and the flexible workforce is where the two get reconciled.

Three signals shaping the workforce this week.

Here's what stands out this week:

• Demand is real. S&P Global's August flash PMI showed US private-sector activity expanding at the fastest pace since 2022, led by a surge in services.^[1]
• Growth and cuts now run in the same building. JPMorgan's job cuts reached their highest level in over a decade in a year when revenue rose.^[2]
• The contingent channel is tightening. US staffing hours hit a fresh 2026 high, with industrial demand up 14%, while jobless claims edged down to 206,000.^[3][4]

Access all stories »

Here's what I'm talking to companies mostly about...

1. The single-narrative workforce plan is dead. Demand is accelerating, headcount is being cut, and the contingent pool is tightening, all at once. A plan built for one of those conditions breaks on the other two. JPMorgan is not an outlier. It is the template: grow the business and shrink the permanent base in the same fiscal year.
2. The gap between demand and headcount is being filled on contract. That is what a 2026 high in staffing hours means while payroll growth stays flat. The work is getting done. It is just not getting done by employees. If your operating model still treats contingent as overflow, it is describing a market that no longer exists.
3. Capacity is not infinite, and your peers are buying now. Industrial demand up 14% is the first category to tighten, and it will not be the last. The organizations that already have flexible talent access built into the plan absorb a strong PMI cleanly. Everyone else pays a premium to catch up in Q4.
4. Which is why I want to have this conversation in person. Not on a webinar, and not through a deck. Whether that is dinner on the 29th or an hour with your team, the question is the same: what does your workforce model need to look like to grow and restructure at the same time, and what has to change before the 2027 plan locks.

If you want to meet with us virtually first, find a time here.

Can't wait to see you in Dallas,

- Tony

Tony Buffum Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Human Cloud. 20+ years in global HR and talent transformation. Former CHRO at FLIR Systems, VP HR at Stanley Black & Decker, VP HR Client Strategy at Upwork. Grab time with me »

PS: The dinner is capped at twenty seats and co-hosted with FoxHire and KarmaCheck. If you are already registered for CWS, request your seat now rather than the week of. Request an invite »

Human Cloud Data

Buyers are shopping for judgment, not just hands

Every 64 seconds, someone is looking at a solution profile on Human Cloud. Here is what they are searching to find them.

What the data shows

Healthcare searches rose 200% this month. Strategy rose 150%. AI, advisory consulting, board-level talent, industrial manufacturing, and accounting each rose 100%.

That is the same split screen from the stories above showing up in our own data. Industrial manufacturing climbing here matches the 14% jump in industrial staffing demand. But the fastest movers are not volume categories. They are strategy, advisory, board, and C-suite: the people you bring in to decide what to do, not just to do it. When a market is growing and restructuring at the same time, judgment is the scarce input. In the last full week, 107 distinct categories were searched on the platform.

Healthcare	+200% this month
Strategy	+150% this month
AI	+100% this month
Advisory Consulting	+100% this month
Board	+100% this month
Industrial Manufacturing	+100% this month
Accounting	+100% this month
C-Suite	+67% this month
Engineering	+33% this month

Percentages are this month vs last month.

Open Cloud

The last three RFPs your peers sent

~30% of RFPs are open on Human Cloud. Find the exact skillsets you're ready to access by copying prior RFPs.

The Open Cloud RFP board. Real requests, real shortlists.

1. A Series A AI platform needs a GCP-certified DevOps engineer. GKE, Terraform, Argo CD, Cloud SQL, and production incident response, to harden staging and production environments.
2. A frontier lab needs an FMS or direct sourcing solution. One that integrates across the contingent ecosystem they already run, not a rip and replace.
3. A PE fund with 50+ portfolio companies needs vetted marketing benches. Scoped packets (brand refresh, SEO/AEO, website audit) they can redeploy across the portfolio on 3, 6, and 9 month cycles.

Browse the RFPs →