Staring down the last two months of the year, talent managers would be forgiven for wondering where the time went amid the challenges of 2025.

As of Friday morning, the government is still shut down, which not only cuts off an important source of workforce data but could threaten operations for those that depend on federal contractors.

And that’s just in recent news. Other long-running trends continue to dog talent leaders, like pressure to hire quickly even amid a slowing job market and how the loss of an important layer of managers affects employee experience. Managers are stressed and employees are burnt out, all while companies continue to demand change.

Much of that change may be attributable to the ongoing explosion of artificial intelligence tools — and work culture may not be ready for the human-machine era, one Gartner report noted.

Those are far from the only trends that may be giving talent pros a fright. Read on to see our coverage of what else might be spooking HR as 2025 marches to its end.