Breaking Job News: Trump's $100K H1-B Visa Fee, RTO Stalls, & AI Recruiter “Anna” Reshapes Hiring

The job market is shifting fast, and in this news update, host Pete Newsome shares a significant update on the H1-B visa policy, where a $100,000 fee for new petitions was introduced by President Trump, causing panic among companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

He also discusses a WSJ article highlighting the slowing return to office mandates, with many employees still working from home despite company mandates. Additionally, research from the University of Chicago shows promising results for AI recruiting, although limitations still exist. Pete concludes with an update on the Business Roundtable's CEO Economic Outlook Index and a fun fact about sick days.

News Articles:
1. H-1B proclamation: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/
2. Return to office challenges: https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/return-to-office-workers-fail-3d966807?mod=careers_news_article_pos1
3. University of Chicago AI research: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/research/center-for-applied-artificial-intelligence/stories/2025/ai-on-the-job
4. Business Roundtable Q3 CEO Economic Outlook Index: https://www.businessroundtable.org/media/ceo-economic-outlook-index/ceo-economic-outlook-index-q3-2025

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Episode Transcript

Pete Newsome (00:02):
Today's job market headlines range from return to
office mandates being ignored tothe rise of AI recruiters.
But let's start with the bigsurprise that took place over
the weekend.
On Friday, president Trumpsigned a proclamation called
Restriction on Entry of CertainNon-Immigrant Workers.
What it says is that, startingSeptember 21st, any new H-1B

(00:22):
petitions filed by a company onbehalf of a worker outside of
the US will need to include a$100,000 payment.
Without it, the worker can't begranted entry.
It sent companies into afull-blown panic mode after it
was signed.
Companies like Amazon,microsoft, google and many
others told foreign workersoverseas to get back to the US

(00:43):
immediately or risk being lockedout.
Hr departments were literallytracking down employees and
booking flights on the spot.
Now, everyone initiallybelieved that the change applied
to current visa holders andrenewals, but the White House
later clarified the new $100,000fee is just a one-time charge,
it's not annual and it onlyapplies to new visas.

(01:03):
Existing workers and renewalsare absolutely safe, at least
for now.
Workers are still worried abouttraveling, and their employers
are too, because many believethat this is just an initial
step in what will be a muchbroader crackdown on foreign
workers.
Time will tell and we'll seewhat happens next In other news.
There have been a lot of reportslately about companies cranking

(01:25):
up their return to officemandates, but it seems that
employees aren't exactly racingback.
The Wall Street Journal reportsthat the rush to return to the
office is stalling.
You've probably seen theheadlines by now.
For major employers likeMicrosoft, paramount, amazon,
dell, jp Morgan.
They've all tightened up theirrules big time this year, but
national office attendance justhasn't moved much.

(01:46):
Stanford economist NicholasBloom says Americans are still
working from home about aquarter of the time, which was
the same as last year.
It seems clear that these bigemployers are struggling to
enforce their mandates.
It just seems like a big messright now, and while these
companies won't admit it, thereturn to office battles seem a
whole lot less aboutproductivity and much more about

(02:08):
control and cost cutting.
It's a way of reducing staffwithout having to use the word
layoff.
So right now there's a standoffgoing on and it seems like
employees are doing pretty wellholding the ground.
All these companies startedjumping on the bandwagon earlier
this year and one after theother were announcing it after
someone finally took that step.

(02:29):
So we'll see.
If this now goes back and thependulum swings the other way.
Who will cave first?
More to come on that for sure.
On the AI front, the Universityof Chicago Booth School has been
studying how AI recruitersmight change hiring.
They ran a test with PSGSolutions that involved over
70,000 job applicants acrosshealthcare, it and industrial

(02:51):
roles.
Some applicants wereinterviewed by human recruiters
and others by an AI voice agentnamed Anna.
The results may surprise you.
Ai interviews produced 12% morejob offers, 18% more starts and
a 16% higher 30-day retention.
That's significant.
Those are meaningful numbers,and when given a choice, 78% of

(03:13):
the candidates preferredinterviewing with Anna over a
human recruiter.
Now there were drawbacks as well.
Some candidates dropped outaltogether because they didn't
want to speak with the bot, andresearchers involved said that
AI isn't ready yet to handlehigh stakes roles that require
creativity, crisis management ornuanced leadership.
That's consistent with whatI've seen firsthand so far,

(03:36):
where AI screening is reallyonly effective in high volume
roles that just don't have a lotof subjectivity attached to
them.
So now we know it's going tochange, as I am inundated all
day, every day, as a staffingcompany owner, with brand new AI
tools.
It seems like there's a new oneevery day in my inbox, and
they're not fully ready forprime time.

(03:58):
Yet for the most part and thatis my assessment We've tested
some things out, we've triedusing them.
I speak to peers all the timeand there's a lot of promise, a
lot of potential, but I don'tsee human recruiters going away
anytime soon.
The evolution that I see rightnow and my perspective is
changing as the technologyevolves is that we'll need fewer

(04:20):
people to operate at the samelevel and in the final headline
today, business Roundtable's CEOEconomic Outlook Index rose
slightly in Q3 to 76, but that'scompared to a historic average
of 83.
The CEO survey indicated thatthey're comfortable spending
more right now, so that's a goodsign.
Plans for capital spendingjumped 12% over Q2, and that's

(04:41):
positive.
We'll take it, but it lookslike they're far from bullish.
The thing that I focus on, ofcourse, is hiring, and it looks
like that will be stagnant for awhile.
The hiring sub index only wentup slightly and it's sitting
below what they consider to be apositive signal that the job
market is growing, so we're notquite ready to call this a
rebound.

(05:01):
I'll take good news where wehave it.
I say that a lot, but look,here's the thing.
A lot of times, hiring willfollow spending, new projects,
expansion all of that is good.
So if companies are spendingmoney, I'll take that as a step
in the right direction.
For sure, and before we closetoday, the fun fact is that the
most common day that people callin sick for work is Monday.

(05:24):
Oh, today is Monday.
So if you're listening to thisand you're not at work,
hopefully it's not becauseyou're actually sick.
But if you called in and saidthat you are, just don't tell me
, I won't judge you.
But I guess it's no surprisethat a lot of people need that
extra day coming out of aweekend.
So hopefully your Mondaywhether you're at work or sick
in air quotes is weekend.
So hopefully your Mondaywhether you're at work or sick

(05:44):
in air quotes is going well.
Thanks for listening.
Please like, subscribe, sharewith anyone who you think might
be interested, and if you haveany feedback, I'd love to hear
that too.
Look forward to speaking withyou tomorrow.