Live Webinar

2026 Hiring Economy Briefing Series: Q1 Edition

Reading the Tea Leaves for 2026

Tuesday, March 17

2:00pm ET
11:00am PT

The U.S. labor market is heading deeper into 2026 with mixed signals. Job growth hasn’t disappeared—but it’s getting narrower, shaped by healthcare-heavy hiring, policy uncertainty, and ongoing A.I. disruption.

In this Q1 2026 Hiring Economy Briefing, part of Appcast’s new quarterly webinar series, Chief Economist Andrew Flowers breaks down what the latest data really means for talent leaders. Join this webinar to hear from Andrew as he cuts through the noise to show where hiring momentum is real—and where warning signs are emerging.

During the webinar, Andrew will cover:

The real story behind the 2026 labor market

The rise of uneven, healthcare-led hiring

What’s next for unemployment, wages, and labor supply

How possible Fed cuts could impact recruiting budgets

How to compete smarter in a leaner hiring environment

Meet the Speaker, Andrew Flowers

Chief Economist, Appcast

Andrew Flowers is the Chief Economist at Appcast, the global leader in programmatic recruitment advertising technology and services. He is the director of research at Recruitonomics.com – a hub for data-driven research that aims to help business leaders navigate the recruitment challenges they face caused by broader economic forces. He also manages the Appcast Data & Insights team – a 13-person team of economists, data scientists, data engineers, and data visualization experts that serve Appcast clients’ data needs.

A recognized expert on economic policy and the U.S. labor market, he has over 15 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Appcast, Flowers was an economist at Indeed, on the Hiring Lab research team; and before that he was the quantitative editor at FiveThirtyEight, Nae Silver’s data-driven news website. He began his career as an economic research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and an M.S. in Applied Economics from Boston College.