Amazon is reaching out to former employees, including some it laid off, to fill open positions in AI, machine learning, and cloud computing, as the company competes for scarce technical talent against Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic.
Recruiter emails obtained by Business Insider show Amazon's AI agent organization running what it calls a "Boomerang Reengagement Initiative," targeting former employees in AI and machine learning fields.
One AWS Finance recruiter offered a shortened interview path to a former employee and asked whether Amazon's return-to-office policy had been a reason for leaving.
Amazon has cut more than 30,000 jobs in multiple rounds of layoffs over the past year; a company spokesperson said boomerang hiring is a longstanding companywide practice, not a new or AI-specific program.
Returning employees made up 35% of U.S. new hires in March 2025, up from 31% a year earlier, according to ADP data; in tech, they accounted for nearly two-thirds of new hires.
Read more via Business Insider
A new Emory University study finds that perceived gender representation in a field is not merely symbolic, but a primary driver of whether women choose to pursue it at all, with implications for how employers recruit.
Women who believed a job had more female representation were more likely to apply, even when the job ad required abilities typically associated with men.
Researchers suggest gender representation may function as a proxy for workplace climate, signaling expectations around support, inclusivity, and competitiveness.
Women may be underrepresented in fields associated with "brilliance" or intrinsic aptitude partly because of stereotypes about who possesses those qualities, including stereotypes held by women themselves.
The researchers describe the dynamic as self-reinforcing: today's representation shapes tomorrow's.
Read more via HR Dive
A ResumeBuilder.com survey of more than 1,000 U.S. employees finds widespread misalignment between what workers were told during hiring and what they actually experience on the job.
Eighteen percent of workers say their current role has changed significantly or is completely different from what they were hired for.
Twenty percent say their daily role expectations are often unclear or completely unpredictable.
Nearly three-quarters (74%) say career advancement conversations are inconsistent, delayed, or only happen after a problem arises; just 26% say they happen proactively.
Thirty percent feel undervalued or completely overlooked based on their contributions.
Read more via ResumeBuilder.com
LinkedIn is rolling out new tools this month to make it harder for scammers to impersonate recruiters and easier for companies to remove fraudulent profiles claiming affiliation with their organizations.
Under the new rules, users flagged as impostors by a verified company page will have seven days to prove their affiliation, down from 14 days under the current system.
Some companies will be able to preemptively require verification for anyone claiming to be affiliated with their organization, and colleagues and classmates will be able to fact-check one another's listed credentials.
LinkedIn says it stops tens of millions of fake accounts annually, but some slip through; scammers have used false company affiliations to solicit resumes and payments from job seekers.
Read more via The Wall Street Journal
A Harvard Business School study of frontline workers at a building materials company finds that employee ownership programs boost retention significantly when companies explain concretely how daily behaviors connect to equity value, rather than relying on broad values messaging.
Workers who received a letter linking specific on-the-job behaviors to equity growth were 13 percentage points less likely to leave than those who received broader, values-based messaging.
The retention gap widened during Hurricane Helene, suggesting concrete guidance matters most when routines are disrupted and uncertainty is high.
Between 2022 and 2025, private equity firms distributed $1.7 billion to non-executive employees; roughly 270,000 workers now hold about $13 billion in equity.
Only 31% of U.S. employees were engaged at work in 2025, per Gallup data cited in the study.
Read more via Harvard Business Review
A new DailyPay and Workday report finds significant gaps between what frontline workers want from their employers and what they actually receive, with implications for recruiting and retention.
Pay clarity and high wages top employee priorities (84% and 88% respectively), but only 57% are satisfied with their employer's pay transparency.
Schedule control matters to 72% of workers, but only 51% are satisfied with the level of control they have; 45% rank schedule among the top three factors in accepting a job, second only to pay.
Seventy-seven percent of frontline workers say access to on-demand pay influences their decision between two competitive job offers.
Forty-six percent of frontline workers borrow money between pay periods, and 78% calculate costs like gas, childcare, and commuting before deciding whether to accept a new shift.
More than half (52%) don't expect their employers to close these gaps.
Read more via Workday
Bank of America announced it will hire 1,000 additional apprentices over the next two years and invest $150 million over five years in workforce development organizations, expanding a program that already brings on more than 800 apprentices annually.
The new apprenticeships will span consumer banking, technology, and operations; the existing program runs about 12 months and typically results in industry-recognized credentials.
The $150 million commitment follows nearly $40 million the bank invested in workforce development in 2025 through partnerships with more than 100 universities and community colleges and over 600 nonprofits.
Roughly four in ten of Bank of America's new hires each year come without a four-year degree; the bank has also pledged to hire 10,000 workers from military backgrounds and 8,000 from community colleges over a five-year period.
All Bank of America employees earn at least $50,000 annually.
Read more via Quartz
FamilyMart, one of Japan's largest convenience store chains, has enlisted Lady Gaga in a recruitment campaign aimed at attracting more part-time workers by loosening workplace appearance rules.
The 30-second video shows Gaga shelving snacks, mopping floors, and running the register before asking in Japanese, "Want to work at FamilyMart?"
The chain is explicitly allowing different hair colors and letting staff style their uniforms according to personal tastes and beliefs, a shift from stricter appearance standards that have historically deterred younger applicants.
The campaign is part of a broader push to attract workers from diverse backgrounds as Japan continues to grapple with a persistent labor shortage that has pushed companies to increasingly rely on foreign hires.
Read more via Bloomberg
