Welcome to Recruiter Roundup, where we take a monthly look at the most exciting recruiting and HR industry news.

What's New at Recruiter.com

• Recruiter.com welcomes two new members to our board of directors: Executive Vice President of RPX Corporation Robert Heath and Workhuman CHRO Steve Pemberton. 
• Recruiter.com acquired Upsider.ai, an artificial intelligence sourcing software that automates candidate identification and engagement to help employers make the best hires. Upsider cofounder and CEO Josh McBride joins Recruiter.com as Senior Vice President. Xuan Smith, cofounder and CTO of Upsider, joins as Vice President.
• We launched the Recruit Me campaign highlighting how a video-first approach to recruiting can play a key role in the Great Rehiring of America by dramatically reducing hiring costs and improving the overall hiring experience for candidates, recruiters, and employers alike. As part of the campaign, Recruiter.com is partnering with National Retail Solutions to bring video interview capabilities to thousands of retail employers nationwide.
• We reported our annual financial results for 2020. Revenue grew 41.6 percent year over year, with fourth-quarter growth of more than 22.3 percent.
• Small and independent recruiters in our network can now take advantage of QuickFee's flexible-term and interest-free payment solutions through the Recruiter.com Marketplace.
• Our 12th Recruiter Index^® survey once again called the job market before the Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Sixty-two percent of the recruiters we surveyed said March's job market was hotter than February's. The US ended up adding 916,000 jobs in March, compared to 379,000 in February. Recruiter.com CEO Evan Sohn appeared on CNBC to talk through the results. Check out the video below:

Recruiting Industry Investments / M&A Activity

• Talent solutions provider Wilson Human Capital Group (WilsonHCG) nets $120 million investment from private equity and venture capital firm 3i Group. (source)
• HQ Link Corporation, a subsidiary of on-demand staffing services franchisor HireQuest, Inc., acquires family-owned staffing company LINK Staffing. (source)
• Startup Orka Technology Group, which helps workers find temporary employment in security, cleaning, logistics, and other industries, raises $40 million. (source)
• AI-powered talent platform SeekOut raises $65 million in Series B funding. (source)
• C-level recruitment specialists Riviera Partners acquires Arete Partners, an executive search firm with a focus on early-stage startups. Arete's team will lead a new Riviera Ventures unit. (source)
• Workforce management platform Papaya Global raises $100 million in Series C funding. (source)
• Compensation tech and data companies PayScale and Payfactors merge. (source)
• Human resources platform Employment Hero raises $34.8 million in Series D funding. (source)
• Employee onboarding tech startup Humaans raises $5 million in seed funding. (source)
• Talent experience management platform Phenom acquires video technology company Talentcube. (source)
• Employee engagement and performance management platform Centrical raises $32 million. (source)
• HR consultancy and tech firm Enspira enters investment and technology development partnership with venture studio Mission8. (source)
• Retrain.ai, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to track job market activity, raises $9 million in Series A funding. (source)
• High-volume healthcare hiring platform Apploi raises $8 million. (source)
• Credit-reporting agency Equifax acquires human capital management software firm HIREtech. (source)
• Talent-matching platform iHire plans to acquire the aptly titled sports-employment hub WorkInSports. (source)

Must-Read Reports

• Even COVID can't keep a good deal down: Capstone Headwaters reports a total of 171 M&A deals in the HCM SaaS industry in 2020, totaling $120 billion in activity. (source)
• Jobvite's 2021 Job Seeker Nation Report has arrived, and candidates aren't feeling great. Two-thirds of Jobvite's survey participants feel it will be harder to get a job this year than it was last year, and 36 percent say they've been unable to participate in video interviews due to a lack of adequate technology. (source)
• The American Staffing Association released its full-year 2020 staffing employment data. Temporary and contract staffing employment fell to Great Recession levels in Q2 of 2020, but the most recent data shows positive signs of a strong recovery. (source)
• PeopleReady also reports rebounding temporary employment, noting that temp work is usually the first to grow following an economic downturn. PeopleReady suggests that, based on historical trends, we should see full-time job growth in the next 6-12 months. (source)
• ManpowerGroup's Employment Outlook Survey sees second-quarter hiring outlooks improving for employers in India, Hong Kong, and the US. Meanwhile, their German, French, and Polish counterparts are less optimistic. (source) 
• The skilled trades are booming, and there aren't enough people to fill all the open roles, PeopleReady reports. (source)
• PayScale's latest research shows the gender pay gap has shrunk by $0.08 since 2015. Not exactly heartening progress, but it's something. (source)
• College hiring is set to pick up, with employers projecting they'll hire 7.2 percent more graduating students from the class of 2021 than they did from the class of 2020. (source)
• Turns out the smallest businesses rehired furloughed workers at the highest rates in 2020, according to research from Ease. (source)

Company News

• Indeed moves from job aggregator to full life-cycle recruitment platform with the Indeed Hiring Platform, which allows employers to manage the entire hiring process through Indeed. (source)
• Jobvite joins the Velocity Network Foundation, throwing its support behind an effort to create a global blockchain network for verified career credentials. (source)
• LinkedIn intensifies its focus on skills-based hiring with a pilot program for LinkedIn Skills Path, new profile personalization options, and expanded access to LinkedIn's Skills Graph. (source)
• LinkedIn also announces development of Marketplaces, an Upwork competitor meant to help white-collar freelancers find work. (source)
• Diversity-focused recruitment tech company Circa announces integration with Greenhouse allowing employers to automatically distribute jobs through both platforms. (source)
• Stoke Talent's AI-powered Worker Classification Engine helps employers detect independent contractor and freelance relationships that veer dangerously toward employee territory, putting them at risk of misclassification penalties. (source)
• Flimp Communications launches WorkforceTXT, a texting platform specifically designed for employee benefits communications. (source)
• Equus Software's new PinPoint Remote Work solution helps employers manage requests for alternative work arrangements. (source)
• Simpeo and GoodJob team up for Simpeo On-Demand Talent service delivering AI-matched candidates to Simpeo's clients. (source)
• SAP Fieldglass announces Assignment Management tool for managing projects with external workforces. (source)
• Salary.com introduces CompAnalyst Pay Equity Reporting Toolkit to help employers identify and remedy salary disparities in their organizations. (source)

Legal/Regulatory News:

• The US Securities and Exchange Commission has modified its disclosure rules for the first time in three decades. Under the new rules, public companies must share details about a wide range of human capital metrics, including employee development, attraction, engagement, and retention. (source)
• The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, currently under consideration in the US Congress, would strengthen protections for pregnant workers. While the bill has failed to garner enough support in the past, experts suggest it just might become law this time. Employers should keep a close eye on the proceedings. (source)

Are you interested in having your company featured in this recruiting industry report? Send an email to our editor, matthew@recruiter.com, with your company's news or announcements. Our regular publication, RecruiterToday, also features thought leadership from recruiting and talent acquisition professionals and accepts content contributions.