A new survey from staffing agency Hire With Near lays bare a striking reality: more than eight in ten U.S. companies are not creating new positions. This isn’t just a temporary blip—it reflects a deeper structural shift in how businesses approach hiring.
Between October 21 and October 26, 2026, Hire With Near polled 102 U.S. founders, hiring managers, HR leaders, and department heads about their company’s hiring activity. The results were stark: 60% reported they are only backfilling roles when employees leave, 23% have frozen hiring entirely, and just 18% are actively adding new positions. The findings help explain what economists have been calling a “low hire, low fire” labor market for over a year—employers are laying off few workers, but they are also bringing on very few new ones.
Government data backs up the trend. In August, the U.S. hiring rate sat at 3.3%, while the layoffs rate was 1.0%, both figures barely budging from prior months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas recorded the weakest September hiring plans since 2011.
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Among the 84 companies that are either only replacing departures or pausing hiring altogether, each was counted once for the primary reason it gave:
- 43% said demand isn’t steady enough to justify committing to a new salary
- 21% said AI or automation now covers work a new hire would have done
- 10% said they reviewed the work before posting a role and found a process problem they could fix without hiring
- 7% said their current team can handle the workload
- 6% said finding qualified people was the bigger problem, mostly companies in trades such as heating and cooling, plumbing and roofing
Many of the companies pointing to demand described a common frustration: the work exists, but they can only forecast a few months ahead. A busy month or a promising sales pipeline is not enough to commit to a long-term salary. For some, the uncertainty originates with their own customers, who are delaying purchases or splitting large projects into smaller phases.
Of the 18% of companies that are still adding roles, most are hiring for positions that directly generate revenue or serve customers—technicians, specialists, and client-facing staff. When asked what would prompt them to start hiring again, the companies holding back most often cited sustained demand: several months of steady orders, longer client contracts, or a specific deal closing.
“A lot of the founders I talk to have more work than their teams can handle, and they still won’t open a new role until they’re sure the demand will hold,” said Hayden Cohen, CEO of Hire With Near. “Many of our calls right now are for backfills. Someone left, and the seat needs covering. When a company does add a role, it can tell you exactly what that person will bring in or which customers they’ll serve.”
Hire With Near’s own placement data reinforces this revenue-focused trend among U.S. companies hiring in Latin America. The firm’s placements grew 31% in the first half of 2026 compared with the previous six months, and hiring for sales development representatives saw the strongest demand, according to its Midyear Hiring Report.
Methodology: Between Oct. 21 and Oct. 26, 2026, Hire With Near asked U.S. founders, hiring managers, human resources leaders and department heads whether their company is hiring and, if not, why. Of 158 responses, 102 came from U.S. companies and stated their hiring status. Responses from outside the U.S., or whose sender or company didn’t match public records, were excluded. Each company not adding roles was assigned one main reason based on its answer, using categories drawn from the answers. Respondents chose to take part, so the results are not a representative sample of U.S. companies.
The full findings on why U.S. companies aren’t hiring for new roles are in Hire With Near’s article “Low Hire, Low Fire: 102 Hiring Leaders Explain Why US Companies Aren’t Adding New Roles,” available at https://www.hirewithnear.com/insights/why-us-companies-arent-adding-new-roles
Why it matters: This data signals that the cautious hiring environment is not just about economic uncertainty—it’s being actively reshaped by AI and internal process improvements. For job seekers and the broader workforce, the message is clear: companies are demanding more proof of sustained demand before adding headcount, and they are increasingly turning to automation to fill gaps once occupied by new employees.
