# HR News: As the Labor Market Heats Up, So Does RTO and AI Slop with July HR News: Jimmy Taylor

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/good-morning-hr-4101361/hr-news-as-the-labor-market-heats-up-so-does-rto-and-ai-slop-with-july-hr-news-jimmy-taylor
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/good-morning-hr-4101361/hr-news-as-the-labor-market-heats-up-so-does-rto-and-ai-slop-with-july-hr-news-jimmy-taylor.md
Podcast: [Good Morning, HR](https://stenobird.com/podcast/good-morning-hr-4101361)
Published: 2026-07-30T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://goodmorninghr.com/episode-263-hr-news-as-the-labor-market-heats-up-so-does-rto-and-ai-slop-with-jimmy-taylor/
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/93c4551c/b141c502.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/good-morning-hr-4101361/episodes/hr-news-as-the-labor-market-heats-up-so-does-rto-and-ai-slop-with-july-hr-news-jimmy-taylor
Duration seconds: 2843

## Resource

In episode 263, Coffey talks with Jimmy Taylor about the state of return-to-office, AI's real impact on workforce participation and HR practice, and why proactive networking and skills-based hiring matter more than ever. They discuss CBRE data showing peak office utilization reaching 80% and the factors driving successful return-to-office adoption; the hidden financial costs employees bear when returning to the office and how employers should account for that in compensation and goodwill; why early-career professionals stand to benefit most from in-person work through mentorship, visibility, and relationship-building; June jobs report softness, a 50-year-low labor participation rate, and competing explanations from immigration enforcement changes and AI displacement; AI as a net job creator over time, drawing parallels to fears about the internet eliminating insurance agents, real estate agents, and recruiters in the 1990s; the organizational opportunity and challenge of assessing AI skill gaps and reskilling loyal existing employees rather than replacing them with outside talent; Gen Z's surprising gaps in desktop computing and interpersonal skills despite their reputation for tech fluency; the case for replacing traditional resumes with tailored application processes and front-end skills assessments to filter out AI-generated candidate slop; professional association involvement as a proactive career resilience and network-building strategy before a job loss forces it; and Dallas HR's hands-on AI skills day designed to move HR professionals from AI curiosity to practical daily application. For listeners of Good Morning HR podcast, use 2026-CoffeyGMHR-100 promo code and take $100 off a HRSouthwest full conference registration at https://hrsouthwest.com . For HR teams w…

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