🔥 Hiring is heating up (kinda)

🖐️ Ernst & Young is giving out $100 million in bonuses for “human skills.”

😬 “My Gen-Z employees treat me like their mommy.”

🧠 Therapy for your employees just got a whole lot easier. Talkspace Self Serve gets your team same-day access to licensed therapists, starting at $15/employee/month.*

⚽ Spain's football federation just took a big step for women's health.

📧 What's your unread email count? This writer confessed to 60,000.

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Right now, Girlboss readers get 50% off their first coaching session with code GIRLBOSS. Remember: not knowing exactly where you’re headed isn't a failure. It's just the starting point!

Is the September Surge Happening This Year or Not?

According to the phenomenon, in the period directly after Labor Day and leading up to Halloween, companies are pretty dang desperate to increase headcounts.

It's the middle of Q4 planning, executives are back from vacation, and businesses are realizing they haven't spent all their budgets. Work Life News calls this a “use it or lose it” mentality surrounding company resources—resulting in a quick hiring process.

And this year, the data seems positive. 👀 The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in August, far more than double what economists expected (53,000 jobs), and according to data from Robert Half, 66% of employers plan to hire in the second half of the year. 

But compared to previous years, the September Surge fodder swirling around the internet has been noticeably quieter.

Career blogger and former Fortune 50 hiring leader Annette Garsteck has been talking about the September Surge for years, but says 2026 is the first year she's genuinely unsure: "experience and historical patterns don't automatically and accurately predict what's going to happen in 2026,” she wrote in a recent blog post. 

She points to LinkedIn's latest Workforce Report, which found U.S. hiring was 7.6% lower in July 2026 than it was a year earlier, with hiring overall still 26% below its pre-pandemic pace.

Bottom line: whether or not this counts as an official "September Surge," it’s never a bad idea to dust off your resume, update your LinkedIn, and start applying. Worst case, you're prepared for whenever the surge (if it exists) actually shows up. 😉

How to go about the September Surge

Regardless of the time of year, applying for a new role is daunting. Luckily, Girlboss has a bunch of helpful how-tos for this exact purpose:

If you’re looking for a comprehensive guide on getting hired, download our expert-informed toolkit and watch this episode of Ambition 2.0 with a veteran recruiter. 

If you want a career change but have no idea what to do next, here’s some advice on the process of job pivoting. 

If you’re burned out from job-hunting, here’s a handy guide on how to stay motivated.

If you’re feeling guilty about leaving your job, here’s an action plan for what to do before you go.

👖 The Labor Day sales are still going strong! Starting with Levi’s, which has 30% off sitewide, plus an extra 40% off sale items. Time to stock up on new jeans!

🛍️ GAP’s Labor Day sale is also worth bookmarking: 40-60% off select styles and 50% off sale. Executive Editor Victoria has her eye on this striped polo sweater and this oversized button-down with a contrasting collar and sleeve. So academia-coded!

📸 We'll never receive another "storage full" notification again! Proton Drive Plus gives you 200GB of encrypted cloud storage for just $1 for your first month.*

💨 Contributing Writer Lara swears by dry shampoo to keep her c*nty bob looking fresh, but after seeing that her dark brown hair looked chalky grey in a flash-on photo (the horror!), she’s officially switched to Batiste Dry Shampoo Dark Hair. No more grey residue and it’s super affordable!

🤎 Content Marketing Manager Kamela has been using Maybelline's Colossal Bubble Mascara in Copper Brown, and she's obsessed! She'd never seen a copper brown shade before (just the usual brownish-blacks), and not only is it a pretty color (not too red or coppery), but it’s a great mascara, too.

⭐ Associate, Executive Compensation, Macy’s

🎢 Vice President, Creative & Art Direction, Universal Creative

🍝 Sales Manager (SMB Outbound Sales) (Remote), Yelp

Get ahead (and save time) by automating your job applications.