Jacksonville, Fla. – September 28, 2026 -- The U.S. independent workforce reached a record 74.9 million people in 2026, driven by a 114% surge in full-time independent professionals since 2020, according to the 16th annual State of Independence study released by MBO Partners by Beeline.

Alpharetta – September 25, 2026 -- Hoonr, an AI-first Workforce Orchestration platform, has secured three Fortune 500 enterprise clients within five months of its April 2026 launch, spanning life sciences, professional services and engineering sectors.

Three Fortune 500 firms select Hoonr's AI sourcing and analytics tools

The wins mark early validation for the platform's Direct Sourcing and Workforce Orchestration capabilities, which target enterprises managing fragmented technology stacks across their talent operations.

Leeds – September 23, 2026 -- Noto Group, an executive search and leadership advisory firm serving consumer brands across North America and Europe, has appointed Kirsty Schofield and Cody Johns as Senior Partners, expanding the firm's global consumer leadership practice.

Palo Alto, Calif. – September 23, 2026 -- Companies offering AI-specific skills training jumped from 25% to 58% over the past year, but 56% of employees still say they get no time during work hours to build those skills, according to Workera's 2026 State of Skills Intelligence Report.

Chicago – September 22, 2026 -- Republic Business Credit has provided a $750,000 factoring facility to a temporary staffing firm based in the Southeast United States, marking the first funding deal to originate from its newly announced partnership with Meritus Capital.

San Francisco – September 22, 2026 -- Handshake, the career network for the AI economy, has launched AI Skills Studio, a free learning hub offering hands-on AI projects to more than one million employers on its platform. The tool was built with partners including Clay, Figma, Gamma, Google, Lovable, Notion, OpenAI, Replit, Salesforce, Southern New Hampshire University, and Vercel.

Redwood City, Calif. – September 22, 2026 -- Findem has launched Findem Studio, a suite of AI agents designed to deliver finished, evidence-backed people-analytics work rather than raw data or search results. The platform is now available for free trial at studio.findem.ai/solutions.

Greenwich, Conn. – – September 22, 2026 -- Hunt Scanlon Ventures, an M&A advisory firm focused on human capital markets, has completed an investment in millionways, a New York-based AI lab building what it calls a behavioral intelligence layer for artificial intelligence systems.

New York – September 21, 2026 -- Prospect HQ, a career platform connecting student-athletes with employers, has launched an iOS app that gives its network of nearly 300 colleges and universities direct mobile access to job matching and profile tools.

Armonk, N.Y. – September 20, 2026 -- Seventy-one percent of Chief Human Resource Officers say the ability to supervise, validate and override AI outputs is now the most essential workforce skill, yet only 29% of employees rank judgment as important, according to a new global study from the IBM Institute for Business Value.