August 05, 2026

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Hi there! The official end of summer may not be for a few more weeks, but the official end of summer internship season? That’ll be here before you know it. And there’s no time like the present to ensure it’s been meaningful for both your organization and your interns, who’ve hopefully achieved more than perfecting the pot of office coffee.

In today’s edition:

📊 Break it down

🪜 Tips from the top

👀 Transparently…

—Kristen Parisi, Paige McGlauflin, Maia Anderson

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Status quo

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The Department of Labor released the June Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data on August 4, and while the economy has shown signs of stress for months, turnover has remained largely unchanged. HR Brew caught up with Nicole Bachaud, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, to break down the latest numbers.

The data. The total number of job openings remained largely unchanged at 7.4 million and hires were unchanged at 5.3 million. Certain sectors, including the normally robust healthcare and tech sectors, showed signs of timid movement.

“We’re seeing a little bit of balancing going on,” Bachaud told HR Brew, noting that job openings dwindled from their peak three months ago. “Employers are catching up to actually execute on some of these openings that they had going out.”

What HR needs to know. Workers and employers are continuing to approach the job market with caution, thanks to rising inflation and gas prices, according to Bachaud. But, she said, the tides may soon change.

For more on what HR needs to know about the latest JOLTS data, keep reading here.—KP

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HR STRATEGY

Got career advice?

Photo collage showing a graphic ladder in the middle - on the bottom left side is a young dark-skinned man wearing a button-down shirt and tie, on the top right is a slightly older dark-skinned man wearing a green blazer, implying it's the same person but with more professional experience.

Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Unsplash

The proverb that most accurately describes the HR professional’s career experience may be “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.”

HR teams are so focused on the workforce they serve that they tend to neglect their own function, especially when it comes to career development. That’s a significant problem for any HR pro who intends to climb to the top of the career ladder.

A 2022 HRCI survey of more than 2,000 HR professionals found that the No. 1 engagement driver for HR professionals who aspire to the C-suite was advancement and promotion opportunities. Yet they also reported being less likely to have access to talent management programs focused on career advancement and leadership development, compared to non-HR employees.

To address that, HR Brew is launching a new series: Tips from the Top.

For more on our new series, and how you can be featured, keep reading here.—PM

TOTAL REWARDS

PBM reform

A magnifying glass with pharma pills underneath it

Amelia Kinsinger

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have taken a number of steps recently to make their practices more transparent, such as eliminating rebates or shaking up pricing models.

The moves follow intense public scrutiny over evidence that PBMs’ outsized—and opaque—influence in the pharmaceutical supply chain may play a large role in keeping drugs unaffordable for many Americans.

But experts told Healthcare Brew it’s unclear whether such changes will lead to any substantial improvements in drug affordability anytime soon.

For more on how the government is forcing PBMs to be more transparent, keep reading here.—MA

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work perks

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: The majority (64%) of federal workers say they wouldn’t again enter public service as the Trump administration continues to erode many long-standing institutional norms and administrative structures, and append the nonpartisan ethos of federal work. (CBS News)

Quote: “What you put into [your career] is what you get out of it. To me, that quote is: saying ‘yes’ a lot. It’s putting in the time when people are not looking. It’s being curious. Now, you have a choice. We get to a Friday night, and you both go home. One of you is curious from the week: they’ve written some notes on their page. And before they go out, or go for a run, or go to the gym, or go out to dinner, or whatever they do, they do a little bit of research…The other person just goes out. That person gets more work to do, and then the next thing you know, that person climbs into the next role and the next role.”—PwC US CEO Paul Griggs’s advice to young people starting their careers, reinforcing the all-too-familiar counsel on how to find success in the business world (Fortune)

Read: Umm, AI applicants are landing job interviews… (Business Insider)

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Show your work

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Last earn why Maine’s new pay transparency law requires employers to share salary ranges with current employees, not just job candidates.

Check it out

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Written by Kristen Parisi, Paige McGlauflin, Maia Anderson, Vicky Valet, and Adam DeRose

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