Field note · July 2026

The hiring gap isn’t a sourcing problem

Every hiring manager who calls me describes the same shape of problem: too few qualified candidates, a market that has dried up, a role that has been open for months. It is almost never true. The candidates exist. What is missing is someone willing to move on them before the window closes.

H-1B sponsorship filings are down roughly a quarter from a year ago. Read one way, that looks like employers pulling back on hiring. Read correctly, it means fewer companies are willing to commit to a candidate under regulatory uncertainty, so the ones who still will are competing for a shrinking pool of people already fielding three other offers.

The company that wins is not the one with the biggest applicant list. It is the one that can say yes on a Tuesday instead of a Friday.

That is a speed problem dressed up as a sourcing problem. Most internal hiring processes were built for a market with slack in it: multiple rounds, committee sign off, weeks between "interested" and "offer." The process was never broken. It is just running in a market that no longer rewards patience.

The fix is not a bigger funnel. It is having someone already inside the right networks who can put a vetted person in front of the right hiring manager before the role has been open long enough to become a write up in a status meeting.

— Attiya Hassan connects companies with hiring gaps to recruiters already working their lane.