Vol. 1 · Week 3 velocityresourcegroup.com March 23, 2026

THE VELOCITY DISPATCH

Weekly Intelligence for Velocity Resource Group

VRG Intelligence Summary — Week of March 23 – March 29, 2026

Client Alert: Thermo Fisher Scientific’s ongoing layoffs in Franklin, Massachusetts, underscore mounting pressure on life sciences firms to streamline operations and adapt to market volatility.

Competitor Move: Aerotek’s focus on strategic investments and operational evolution highlights a shift toward long-term growth, urging VRG to prioritize efficiency and innovation.

Market Signal: AI adoption in recruitment is accelerating, offering VRG a critical opportunity to enhance efficiency and stay ahead in talent acquisition.

Tech Watch: OpenClaw’s AI-driven automation and CRM integration provide a game-changing tool for recruiters to boost productivity and candidate engagement.

Client Company Watch

Thermo Fisher Scientific continues to face significant layoffs as part of an ongoing restructuring, with recent cuts impacting a site in Franklin, Massachusetts.

Gossamer and BiomX have announced major staff reductions, with layoffs set to take effect on March 23, 2026, following similar actions by competitors like Charles River.

Highmark Health is expanding westward through its affiliation with Blue KC, which will add over one million members and mark a key growth milestone.

Johnson & Johnson remains focused on its earnings and strategic outlook, with no immediate signals of hiring surges or layoffs in the latest updates.

Quiet week across client companies — no major hiring signals detected.

Fierce Biotech Layoff Tracker 2026: Gossamer lays off 48%; Bicycle deflates

2 - Thermo Fisher Scientific: An ongoing layoff spree now includes a fresh set of cuts tied to a site that is shuttering in Franklin, Massachusetts. A company spokesperson told Fierce Pharma that the number of layoffs will be capped at 80 staffers. ...

Layoff Tracker: Gossamer, BiomX Reveal Hefty Staff Cuts

The employee terminations will take effect on March 23, 2026. Charles River did a similar staff clean-up early last year. Its most recent cycle of layoffs, according to a BioSpace tally, were in April 2025, which affected 13 people in Maryland.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Earnings Date and Reports 2026 $JNJ

When is Johnson & Johnson's next earnings announcement? View the latest JNJ earnings date, analysts forecasts, earnings history, and conference call transcripts.

Johnson & Johnson - Wikipedia

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the ...

Johnson Controls - Wikipedia

Johnson Controls International plc is an American-Irish multinational conglomerate headquartered in Cork, Ireland, that produces fire, HVAC, and security equipment for buildings. As of mid-2019, it employed 105,000 people in around 2,000 locations across six continents.

Demand & Trends

  • AI and machine learning engineers are among the top in-demand tech roles with employers prioritizing these skills for 45% of their business strategies.
  • Cloud architects and data engineers are also highly sought after, with cloud architecture and operations ranking 24% and data engineering and analytics at 22% in top priorities.
  • Skilled trades, project managers, and construction technologists, including those with expertise in BIM, drones, and digital twins, are experiencing increased demand due to infrastructure and technology integration.
  • Information services and certain tech roles are seeing job losses, with the sector losing an average of 5,000 jobs per month over the past year.
  • Salary growth remains modest, with job switchers seeing only a 2% wage increase advantage over stayers, indicating a cooling trend in salary hikes compared to previous years.
2026 Technology job market: In-demand roles and hiring trends

Technical capabilities employers value most in tech and IT ... In 2026, many employers are finding that one of the greatest challenges in hiring tech and IT talent is balancing competing priorities.

The 10 most in-demand tech jobs for 2026 — and how to hire for them | CIO

Top priorities for business leaders during the year include AI and ML (45%), IT operations and infrastructure (36%), IT governance and compliance (25%), cloud architecture and operations (24%), and data engineering and analytics (22%). The report ...

LinkedIn Unveils Most In-Demand Jobs Skills in 2026

LinkedIn’s editor-in-chief Dan Roth joins TODAY to unveil their annual list of Skills on the Rise that ranks the most important areas of expertise that employers are looking for in 2026. Roth also breaks down how to identify your skills and how to advertise yourself with them.

2026 Forecast: Where the Jobs Will Be │U.S. Veterans Magazine

Industry analyses reveal chronic ... persist, and softer in areas where office demand lags. Skilled trades, project managers and construction technologists (including those specializing in BIM, drones and digital twins) ...

Pay trends to watch in 2026 - ADP Research

Through the lens of more than 26 million monthly private sector paychecks, we capture five key wage indicators shaping the labor market. Here are the trends to watch for 2026, in five easy charts. ... My team taps anonymized, high-frequency payroll data to track the same cohort of workers over 12-month intervals to compute each individual’s year-over-year change in gross pay, including base salary, bonuses and tips.

Competitor Activity

  • TEKsystems is expanding into hybrid roles, such as Bankruptcy Accounts Specialist, signaling a shift toward flexible work models that VRG should consider to remain competitive.
  • Aerotek is focusing on strategic investments and operational evolution, as highlighted by CFO Stacey Jenkins' recognition, indicating a move toward long-term growth and efficiency that VRG should emulate.
  • Tech leaders are pivoting to specialized contract talent, a trend that VRG should capitalize on by strengthening its niche expertise in high-demand areas like engineering and IT.
  • Major tech layoffs and hiring freezes are occurring, creating both challenges and opportunities for VRG to position itself as a reliable partner in a tightening market.
  • The emphasis on hybrid roles and specialized contract talent suggests VRG should enhance its digital recruitment tools and expand its focus on niche markets to align with industry trends.
17 Best Tech Recruiting Companies to Hire Top Talent in 2026

Some of the best tech recruiters in NYC for senior engineering roles include TEKsystems, Kforce, and Wunderland Group.

TEKsystems - Overview, News & Similar companies | ZoomInfo.com

Registration Now Open for April 11, 2026, in Tempe, AZ. Registration Now Open for April 11, 2026, in Tempe, AZ. ... TEKsystems now hiring HYBRID Bankruptcy Accounts Specialist - Job at TEKsystems in Vienna, VA - apply today!

Analysis: Why 65% of Tech Leaders are Pivoting to Specialized Contract Talent in 2026 - IndyStar | The Indianapolis Star

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, March 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Tech teams face constant skills gaps, with 87% of leaders struggling to find qualified full-time hires. According to Robert Half’s latest workforce research, 65% of technology ...

Companies that announced Major Layoffs and Hiring Freezes | Intellizence

Intellizence has curated a list of major companies that have announced mass layoffs, job cuts, downsizing, hiring freezes, and furloughs. Subscribe to Intellizence.

Tech layoffs surpass 45,000 in early 2026 | Network World

As organizations invest in new technologies and streamline operations, workforce reductions are increasingly being used to rebalance staffing levels and focus resources on growth areas.

Tools & Trends

  • OpenClaw enables recruiters to automate lead generation, prospect research, and CRM integration with AI-driven virtual assistants, offering 24/7 task automation and personalized candidate engagement
  • HireVue's AI hiring agent streamlines candidate evaluation by integrating intelligent interviewing, skills validation, and workflow automation within a single platform, improving hiring efficiency
  • Red Hat AI's OpenClaw implementation allows for self-hosted or hybrid AI agent workloads, giving recruiters control over data and execution while maintaining OpenAI API compatibility for advanced automation
  • Eightfold AI enhances talent pipelines with predictive analytics and AI-driven candidate matching, enabling proactive talent sourcing and reducing time-to-hire
  • NemoClaw's security and privacy enhancements for OpenClaw ensure secure, local AI agent execution, protecting sensitive recruitment data while enabling advanced automation capabilities
Top 10 Agentic AI Recruiting Tools for Talent Acquisition Teams 2026

HireVue remains highly relevant in 2026 because it connects intelligent interviewing, assessments, scheduling, and workflow automation in one hiring platform. Its newer AI hiring agent positioning builds on what the company already did well: helping recruiters validate skills, structure interviews, and move candidates through evaluation more efficiently.

Top 10 AI Recruitment Tools in 2026 (Features, Pricing & Comparison)

Discover the top 10 AI recruitment tools in 2026 with features, pricing, and comparison. Find the best AI recruiting software to automate hiring and improve candidate matching.

The best AI agents in 2026 | Product Hunt

ElevenLabs, Deepgram, and Intercom power voice and support automation. New launch OctoClaw adds always-on agents for research, inbox, and CRM.

Best AI Tools for Talent Acquisition in 2026

The best AI talent acquisition tools in 2026 — Eightfold, SeekOut, Beamery, HireEZ, and more. Build candidate pipelines before you need them.

Operationalizing "Bring Your Own Agent" on Red Hat AI, the OpenClaw edition

This creates a path for teams to run agent workloads on self-hosted or hybrid-model infrastructure, rather than routing every prompt, tool call, and reasoning artifact through third-party services. OpenResponses-compatible runtimes for self-managed and hybrid environments are still limited. Red Hat AI provides one of the most mature implementations of the specification that targets that gap, making it a practical route for OpenClaw users who want to preserve OpenAI responses API-oriented agent behavior while moving execution to infrastructure they control.