The Worker Bidding War Is Over

Hello, and welcome back. In this edition, we take a look at the rise of quiet cutting, the RTO policy employees actually like, the best age for making financial decisions and more.

This is a short version of The Wall Street Journal’s Careers & Leadership newsletter. Sign up here to get the full edition in your inbox every week.

Pay for New Hires Is Shriveling

After years of salary increases, many companies are paying new recruits less than they did just months ago as the job market cools and businesses become more cautious in their hiring. Some of the steepest drops have been in technology, transportation and other sectors that experienced frenzied hiring sprees in 2021 and early 2022, according to ZipRecruiter.

Job switchers are being forced to reset expectations .

You’ve Heard of Quiet Quitting. Now Companies Are Quiet Cutting.

Workers are waking up to emails and team-meeting requests with a jarring message: They aren’t fired but their jobs are gone. For companies that spent several years—and significant money—hiring top talent, reassigning workers to new roles can be a way to fill jobs vital to future plans while trimming costs associated with old strategies, say human-resources executives. Reorged employees are faced with a decision:

Leave, or figure out how to work their way out of job purgatory .

How a “Richcession” Is Closing a Decades-Long Wage Gap

Wages are outpacing inflation, driven largely by pay gains for low-income workers. Those gains have helped close the gap between blue- and white-collar workers.

Here's what’s driving the higher wages, and what to look for next .

Elsewhere in The Wall Street Journal

Check out some of the Journal’s other best-read stories on work life and the office over the past week:

• The Disconnect Between Remote Workers and Their Companies Is Getting Bigger (Read )
• This Company Created a Return-to-Office Plan That Employees Actually Like (Read )
• The Exact Age When You Make Your Best Financial Decisions (Read )

This is a condensed version of WSJ’s Careers & Leadership newsletter. Sign up here to get the WSJ’s comprehensive work coverage in your inbox each week.

This newsletter was curated by Gretchen Tarrant, WSJ Producer. Let us know what you think by dropping us a note at [email protected] .