The research desk.

Open-access institutional research on careers, the talent agency model, and the early-career labor market. LinkedIn was built for résumés. Indeed was built for postings. Launchpad is the talent agency built for the human at the center of the career. The research catalog makes the empirical case.

Published by the Launchpad Capital Desk · Edited by Ali Sina · support@launchpadcareer.com

Flagship · Vol I

The State of Careers.

Annual flagship. How young professionals actually get hired in 2026, why the job-board model is broken (87:1 application ratio, 5.2-month time-to-job), and what happens when talent finally gets representation the way athletes and entertainers have for sixty years.

Volume I · June 2026 · 5 pages · CC BY 4.0

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Inside this volume

01Executive summary — six findings

02The funnel collapse (12:1 → 87:1 in a decade)

03LinkedIn vs. Indeed vs. Launchpad

04The forward agenda

Published catalog

The methodology stack.

Vol II publishes how Launchpad represents talent. Vol III delivers the quarterly market data — comp ladders, channel mix, time-to-close benchmarks. Both open access.

Vol IIJun 2026

The Talent Agency Methodology.

How Launchpad represents talent. The 6-stage representation cycle (Discovery, Profile Construction, Market Map, Pitch, Negotiation, Stewardship). The 1:12 agent ratio rationale. The placement-fee structure that keeps incentives aligned. The client bill of rights.

The headline finding

Empirically, the 1:12 agent-to-client ratio is the methodology floor. Above 16, close rate drops from 78% to 51%. An agency that scales beyond 1:12 stops being an agency and starts being a recruiter.

Published · Read PDF →

QuarterlyQ2 2026

Career Market Data.

Launchpad's published view of the early-career labor market. Comp ladders by role and city. Channel-mix data from 40 top employers. Time-to-close benchmarks. Represented vs. direct outcomes side-by-side.

The headline finding

Represented candidates closed in 52 days median vs. 5.2 months direct. Application volume to reach interview: 6:1 vs. 87:1. Net comp uplift: +27% average across categories.

Published · Read PDF →

Open access · CC BY 4.0

Research, adopted.

Every paper in the Launchpad Research catalog publishes under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The methodology is meant to be adopted, critiqued, and operationalized by other agencies, career services teams, and economists.

Launchpad exists because the young professional of 2026 deserves representation the same way athletes and entertainers have had for sixty years. The research desk exists because that case has to be made empirically, not just rhetorically.

For citation correspondence, replication studies, or to contribute to a future volume: support@launchpadcareer.com

Research · Methodology · Position · launchpadcareer.com/research

How to cite Vol I: Launchpad Research. (2026). The State of Careers, Volume I. Launchpad. launchpadcareer.com/research

Disclaimer. The Launchpad research catalog is educational. Numbers cited are estimates with documented methodology; treat as directional. Comparisons with LinkedIn and Indeed are made for educational and analytical purposes; LinkedIn is a registered trademark of LinkedIn Corporation and Indeed is a registered trademark of Indeed Inc. Launchpad is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or otherwise associated with either company.