HR Brew // Morning Brew // Update

March 13, 2026

It’s Friyay! ICYMI, Miley Cyrus dropped a teaser trailer this week for a Hannah Montana 20th-anniversary special. And really, who can better relate to a teen leading a double life as a popstar than a people pro? You don’t just benefit from your organization’s HR policies—you get to decide them. Talk about the best of both worlds…

In today’s edition:

The perfect storm

Think twice

SaaS-pocalypse

—Paige McGlauflin, Kristen Parisi, Patrick Kulp

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Unemployment taboo

Getty Images

While unemployment has remained at or below 4.5% since the Covid-19 pandemic-driven recession, more people are finding themselves jobless for extended periods of time.

Currently, around one-quarter of all unemployed people in the US have been out of a job for at least six months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was around 1.9 million people in February, up nearly 1.5 million over the prior year, per the BLS. The last time long-term unemployed people made up this large a share of all unemployment was in early 2022, as the economy recovered post-recession.

Now, however, the labor market looks very different. Companies that over-hired during the Great Resignation have corrected by laying off workers or refusing to backfill empty positions. And many companies are cutting back on staffing costs to make room in the budget for AI investments. Hiring is also down due to several economic macrofactors: Uncertainty driven by high interest rates, tariffs, and inflation already had many business leaders hesitant to make investments, including in hiring, and the sudden war in the Middle East will only make that worse, according to Stephen Dwyer, president and CEO of the American Staffing Association.

“You have this shedding of employees, you have a lack of new jobs being created…we’re seeing as a result of that skilled, really talented, unemployed workers struggling to find their next role,” Dwyer told HR Brew. “I mean, all of this is the perfect storm.”

For more on why HR needs to put an end to the long-term unemployment taboo, keep reading here.—PM

Presented By bSwift

More than communications

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DEI

Cautious due diligence

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released new guidance on using social media to help determine if telework is a reasonable accommodation at federal agencies under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. However, one lawyer told HR Brew that employers should take caution before looking at workers’ social media.

The Trump administration has tried to cut down on remote work, including telework accommodations for disabled workers, at federal agencies since last year. In 2025, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) temporarily paused all telework accommodation requests, and the Veterans Administration updated its rules to limit telework for disabled workers.

In recent guidance, the EEOC said that federal agencies are “not required to turn a blind eye to” evidence that shows an employee may not be entitled to certain accommodations, including remote work. The agency may follow up on an employee who routinely posts evidence in direct conflict with their accommodation on social media, and agencies should use medical documentation and the legally required interactive process to determine if telework is an appropriate reasonable accommodation

Private employers often take cues from decisions and trends in the public sector, but they should be cautious if they do choose to review workers’ social media posts for this purpose.

For more on why private employers should think twice before using social media posts to evaluate remote work accommodations, keep reading here.—KP

TECH

It’s complicated

A robot Customer Service AI Assistant typing on laptop

Illustration: Brittany Holloway-Brown, Photo: Top Stock/Adobe Stock

Are software companies like Oracle and Salesforce headed for the trash icon of history?

Investors have been dumping their stocks in software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies since late January, with one trader (and dozens of headlines) dubbing it the “SaaS-pocalypse.” So while time will tell whether the end is actually nigh, change is in the air. And like seemingly all things business-related in 2026, that change is predicated on some form of AI.

The prevailing theory behind the sell-offs seems to be that sophisticated workplace agents as well as new coding tools from Anthropic and OpenAI could make this sort of business software model obsolete. If an IT team can easily “vibe code” internal software or assign tasks to role-specific plug-ins within Claude Cowork, do they still need expensive pay-per-seat platform subscriptions?

For more on the SaaS-pocalypse, keep reading here.—PK

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WORK PERKS

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Software company Atlassian reduced its headcount by 10%, or 1,600 jobs. (CNBC)

Quote: “Older workers want and need to work beyond traditional retirement age…They’re not financially ready to retire, and they may enjoy what they do. However, they can only succeed if employers are welcoming and supportive.”—Catherine Collinson, CEO and president of nonprofit Transamerica Institute and the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, on why more companies should offer phased-retirement programs for older workers (Yahoo Finance)

Read: A Washington state law bans employers from requiring workers to get a microchip implant. (Washington State Standard)

Bring it all together: Employee engagement isn’t a one-time event—and your benefits solution shouldn’t treat it like one. bswift connects communications, enrollment data, and claims signals in one system to engage employees beyond open enrollment.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

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Written by Paige McGlauflin, Kristen Parisi, Patrick Kulp, and Mikaela Cohen

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