Sales hiring explodes

Signal Summary: Healthcare firms top the fastest-growing list; ManpowerGroup posted massive losses despite flat revenue, and sales recruitment just hit record highs. Plus, sometimes personal drama makes interview decisions easier than expected.

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HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK ↓

SIGNAL 1
Healthcare staffing firms dominate fastest-growing list

The winners: SIA's 2025 Fastest-Growing US Staffing Firms list just dropped, and healthcare destroyed the competition.

The breakdown:

• 41% of the 99 fastest-growing firms focus on healthcare staffing

• IT staffing snagged 25% of spots, industrial with13%

• Median growth rate hit 28.3% over four years

• 11 firms achieved 50%+ growth rates

Geographic winners: Everything is bigger in TX, who led with 16 firms, CA had 14, and NJ with 7.

Signal → Strategy: Evaluate your Texas presence immediately. The state is leading in both job growth and staffing firm success, meaning client demand and market viability.

Go deeper: SIA Fastest-Growing Staffing Firms 2025

SIGNAL 2
Manpower posts massive losses despite flat revenue

The damage: The staffing giant reported net losses of $67.1 million ($1.44 per share) on $4.5 billion in revenue - flat year-over-year but down 3% in constant currency.

What killed profits:

• $89M non-cash goodwill impairment charge*

• Restructuring costs across operations

• Net losses from business sales transitioning to franchise model

• Excluding charges, adjusted earnings were still down 43% to $0.78 per share

In simple terms: They had some major one-time expenses this quarter, but even without those, the business isn’t doing as well as last year.

Signal → Strategy: Target areas & clients where Manpower has a presence - potential operational disruptions could offer opportunities to swoop in while they adjust.

^{*Goodwill impairment = when a company admits it overpaid for acquisitions. It's an accounting write-down that doesn't affect cash but shows the purchase wasn't worth what they thought.}

Go deeper: ManpowerGroup Q2 2025 Results

SIGNAL 3
Sales hiring costs explode as employers go on offense

The surge: Sales recruitment hit record highs with attraction prices jumping 78.7% month-over-month. (The most expensive month in Talivity's Talent Market Index history)

What's driving the frenzy:

• Pipeline pressure and Q3 fiscal goals forcing urgent action

• Companies pivoting from reactive to proactive workforce strategies

• Employers targeting proven talent with track records of closing deals

• Tariffs, visa constraints, and political uncertainty reshaping hiring maps

The bigger shift: "Employers are no longer waiting for perfect conditions," says Talivity's Chief Strategy Officer. Translation: the hiring market is shifting from caution to calculated aggression.

Signal → Strategy: Target sales-heavy companies with premium sales talent - they're clearly willing to pay top dollar for immediate revenue impact.

Go deeper: Talivity Talent Market Index July Report

RECRUITING CONFESSIONAL
When personal drama crashed the interview

Recruiting Confessional A weekly series featuring anonymous stories from recruiting and staffing professionals. Submit yours here.

The Setup: Interviewing candidates for a sales rep position. Professional office, standard interview process.

The Disaster: Candidate's phone rings mid-interview. She answers it. Turns out it's her boyfriend calling about an "unprotected situation" from the night before. What followed was a full-volume screaming match about their intimate life - right across my desk. Needless to say, she didn’t get the job.

Have a story? Submit it here

WEEKLY POLL

SHARE THE SIGNALS
3 people you should share these signals with:

1. Your sales director who's been struggling to fill quota-carrying roles

2. Anyone watching ManpowerGroup's stock wondering what happened

3. Your healthcare staffing buddy who needs validation that they picked the right niche