As US hiring slows to a near-modern low, recruiters say some companies aren’t growing teams—they’re quietly replacing weaker performers with “the best of the best,” a shift they call “bullseye hiring.” Workers affected by restructurings at Amazon and LinkedIn
For Nicholas Jenkins, it wasn’t the initial reorganization at Amazon that made the pressure unbearable—it was the moment his managers began raising concerns and the company moved him onto a formal improvement track.
Jenkins, a program manager in his 40s who lives in Texas, said that after new management followed an Amazon reorganization in 2024, the new arrangement didn’t feel like a great fit. Still, he initially believed his work was critical and that “for the most part, the quality spoke for itself.”
Then, by mid-2024, he said his managers started flagging performance issues. Around October, he was formally placed on Amazon’s “Focus” performance-improvement program. “At that point, I was like, ‘I’ve got to get out of here,’” Jenkins said. “This is too stressful.”
By the end of the year, Jenkins accepted a termination package that included a few months of severance pay.
His story fits a broader labor-market reality recruiters say is taking hold as hiring budgets tighten and economic uncertainty bites. With hiring slowed in the US due to economic uncertainty. cost-cutting. and AI adoption. three recruiters across tech. marketing. and logistics said that when companies do hire. it can come at the expense of an existing employee.
“There is just no appetite for mediocrity anymore. ” said Brent Orsuga. founder of the supply chain and logistics recruiting firm Pinnacle Growth Advisors. Over the past year, he said, his clients have quietly replaced employees rather than grown headcount. “Everyone was looking at what they have and being like, ‘I want the best of the best,’” Orsuga said.
He described a common scenario: a company with 10 sales reps that wants to boost performance. Instead of expanding the team, Orsuga said it’s often more affordable to identify the lowest-performing reps and replace them with better ones—even if the new employees cost a bit more.
Upgrading isn’t new, but Orsuga said 2025 is the biggest year he’s seen for the trend in more than two decades of recruiting work. He calls it “bullseye hiring.” “It’s like every seat matters, so I’ve got to hit a bullseye and get the right person in the right seat,” he said.
In February, the hiring rate fell to 3.1%—a modern low matched only by the pandemic and the early recovery from the Great Recession. One of the forces driving the shift, recruiters said, is a push to maximize every dollar spent on talent as hiring budgets tighten.
The change can start far from boardroom decisions and play out in day-to-day hiring practices. Lindsay Myketey. a recruiter at Cella by Randstad Digital who focuses on mid- to senior-level marketing and technology roles. said many clients looking to upgrade existing employees turn to confidential searches.
She said that as roles evolve. companies may replace workers for several reasons. from underperformance to gaps in skills. including those related to AI. Myketey added that many managers are taking on more responsibilities. and that companies might replace those who can’t keep up. Sometimes, she said, employees are moved into different roles rather than let go.
How replacement searches happen can vary by role and level. For senior roles—typically those paying at least $100. 000 annually—Orsuga said companies might use headhunters to conduct confidential searches instead of publicly posting the role. adding that this helps avoid “spooking” the employee they’re looking to replace.
For mid-level roles, Orsuga said companies use a mix of headhunters and job postings. Some are required to post roles externally for compliance reasons. he said. and because many employees share similar titles. a new posting can signal growth rather than a looming replacement. Orsuga also said some companies are “always hiring”—bringing on new talent not necessarily to grow headcount. but to replace lower-performing workers over time.
That dynamic, he said, can disproportionately affect early-career workers, who may find themselves competing with annual cohorts of new graduates.
In some cases, Orsuga said, high-performing employees are cut because they’re too expensive. He compared it to the sports world, where many teams operate under a salary cap. “There’s only so much money to spend, and sometimes that means moving on from a talented, highly-paid player,” he said.
Workers across the economy may be seeing those pressures building even when layoffs remain low relative to historical levels. Myketey warned that people shouldn’t overlook the risk of replacement—and being pushed into a challenging job market. “Even when you have the job. you really need to make sure you’re operating at a high level. like on the ‘good list. ’” she said.
For Oscar Cecena Fujigaki, a customer success manager at LinkedIn, the shock came after months of confidence. In 2024, he suspected layoffs could be coming, but he said he was confident he’d be fine. Then, in May 2025, he learned he had lost his job.
“I was shocked to be affected,” Fujigaki said. He’s in his 40s and lives in Toronto. “Based on our performance metrics, my understanding was that I was doing well.”
After initially delaying his job search to focus on a personal project, Fujigaki said he set out to land a higher-paying role than his previous position, which paid about $114,000 a year. But he said the market proved far more challenging than he expected.
Fujigaki also said the timing and decision felt disconnected from his individual performance. “Layoffs are business decisions made by people who don’t even know your name or situation,” he said.
Across these accounts, one tension appears clearly: the labor market may be quiet in headline numbers, but the workforce can still be reshaped through a more selective approach—one that favors upgrading over growth, and that can leave individual employees guessing until the decision is final.
Jenkins said his experience turned stressful once the company moved him onto Amazon’s “Focus” performance-improvement program in October 2024. leading to an acceptance of a termination package with a few months of severance pay by the end of the year. Fujigaki. by contrast. said he had been watching performance metrics and expected to be fine—until his LinkedIn job ended in May 2025.
The recruiters describe a system built around “bullseye” placement: seats must be filled precisely. confidentially. and with the right fit for evolving demands. And for workers. that can mean the difference between being seen as a “good” performer and being judged—quietly. or suddenly—as replaceable.
hiring slowdown bullseye hiring replacement hiring recruiting layoffs performance improvement program Amazon Focus LinkedIn layoffs Brent Orsuga Pinnacle Growth Advisors Lindsay Myketey Cella by Randstad Digital AI adoption job market