The appeal is easy to see. You have a position to fill, a budget to prepare, and a dozen other decisions waiting. Open ChatGPT or your preferred AI tool, ask, “What salary should I pay a [role]?” and you'll get a recommendation in seconds.

Before you use that recommendation to set a hiring budget, though, you need to know what supports it. Which market? Which responsibilities? Which sources?

At SkyWater Search Partners, we built our 2027 Salary Guides around our own placement data and the experience of recruiters working in the market every day. Our goal is to help you evaluate the range and understand the hiring conditions behind it.

If it feels like hiring slowed down earlier this year, you're not imagining it. But "slower" doesn't mean "stopped." Heading into Q4, the labor market is uneven by design: some sectors are adding roles steadily, others are holding flat, and a few are pulling back. Knowing which is which matters, whether you're a candidate deciding when to make a move or an employer trying to figure out how hard you'll have to compete for talent.

Labor Day started as a tribute to the American worker. In 1894, it became a federal holiday after decades of labor movements pushed for fairer hours, safer conditions, and better pay. The original spirit of the day was simple: the people doing the work deserve to be seen, valued, and compensated fairly for it.

Something has shifted in how people talk about their jobs. A few years ago, the story was "quiet quitting." Then it was "job hopping." Now, workers are "job hugging," holding tight to the jobs they have because the market feels too shaky to risk a move. Underneath all of these labels is the same question: do I actually matter here?

Every month, a new unemployment rate lands, gets a headline, and gets treated like a verdict on the regional economy. For the boards, CEOs, and hiring leaders SkyWater Search Partners works with across Minnesota and the Upper Midwest, that single number is usually the least useful part of the report. Here is what the data actually shows right now, what it is probably hiding, and what it means if you are building a leadership team in this region in the second half of 2026.

At its core, the idea of freedom is tied to something deeply human: the potential to shape one’s own future. Or, as Franklin D. Roosevelt described it in his 1941 State of the Union Address, “freedom from want.”

For most of us, one of the most tangible expressions of that freedom is meaningful work, the kind of work that gives us the ability to contribute, support the people we care about, develop our talents, achieve our personal goals, and build a life with purpose. That kind of opportunity doesn’t happen through employment alone. It happens through access.

The path to inclusive opportunity often begins earlier than we realize. 

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were informed of their freedom, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. It is a date that carries profound historical significance, marking both the delay in honoring that freedom and the enduring importance of equal access to opportunity.

Please join us in congratulating Adriana Fontaine, Executive Operations Associate, on being named SkyWater Search Partners Employee of the Quarter.

Memorial Day invites us to pause and remember, not just the holiday, but the service and sacrifice of others.

When we think about those who have served and given their lives, we’re reflecting on a level of dedication that went far beyond obligation, a commitment to something bigger than themselves. It guided their choices, regardless of the potential for recognition, individual gain or devastating personal loss. At its core, this day gives us an opportunity to reflect on what we can learn from those who have shown us the very best of what it means to truly place the good of all above the benefit to self.

Leadership is often framed as something built through education, experience, or opportunity. But for many influential figures, its earliest foundations come from something far more personal: the values, expectations, and quiet examples set by their mothers. These mothers did not simply offer advice, they shaped how their children understood learning, dignity, responsibility, and resilience. Long before titles or recognition, these leaders were being formed at home.