First up, a major change at the top for Employ Inc.—the powerhouse behind JazzHR, Lever, and Jobvite. The company has officially appointed Jerry Jao as its new CEO.
Jao is a serial entrepreneur who founded the AI-powered marketing platform Retention Science. What’s interesting here is that Jao isn’t just a tech exec; he was actually a Lever customer for six years. He’s stepping in with a “founder’s mindset” to lead Employ through the GenAI era. His message? Hiring must remain “people-first,” but the technology needs to move faster. Watch for Employ to lean even harder into AI innovation to help recruiters make more confident decisions without losing that human connection.
Next, let’s talk about speed. hackajob just announced that its AI recruiting agent, Archer, has surpassed $1 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in just 90 days.
To put that in perspective, the “pre-AI” gold standard was hitting that million-dollar mark in a year—Archer did it in one quarter. Why is it winning? Because it’s tackling the “crisis of trust” in hiring. Archer qualifies candidates before they even hit the ATS, verifying identity and fit to cut through the noise of AI-generated CVs. It’s already boasting a 20-to-1 candidate-to-hire ratio—which is 15 times better than the industry average. Originally focused on tech, Archer is now expanding to support all knowledge-worker roles, from finance to operations.
Hackajob announces its AI recruiting agent has surpassed $1 million in ARR
Moving over to the freelance world, we’re seeing a massive pivot at Fiverr. In their 2025 year-end report, they revealed a “quality over quantity” strategy. While they actually lost 14% of their active buyers, the ones who stayed are spending more—average spend per buyer is up 13% to over $340.
Fiverr is shifting away from the “five-dollar gig” and moving toward high-end, professional business outsourcing. They’re calling 2026 a “reset year” as they re-architect the platform to be AI-native. Along with this shift, they’ve promoted long-time CFO Ofer Katz to President to focus on strategy and acquisitions.
Meanwhile, Upwork is signaling confidence in its own value, announcing a $300 million share repurchase program. This brings their total authorizations to $600 million since late 2023. Both platforms are clearly positioning themselves as high-value enterprise partners rather than just job boards for quick tasks.
https://hrtechfeed.com/upwork-announces-300-million-share-repurchase-program/
Finally, we close with the latest Appcast 2026 Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report. The big takeaway? We are officially in the “Great Stay.” It’s a “low-hire, low-fire” environment. People aren’t quitting, and the wage premium for job-hoppers has evaporated—it’s now nearly the same as staying put. But don’t let the slow movement fool you; recruiting isn’t getting cheaper. The median cost-per-hire has risen to $1,053.
There’s a sharp divide between “sitting down” roles (like tech) where pools are crowded, and “standing up” roles (like healthcare) where costs-per-application are as high as $35. If you want to win in 2026, the data says: keep your applications under 5 minutes, disclose the salary, and post on Mondays. Averag cost per click is now around 92 cents by the way…
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