Over 155 million workers in the U.S. have LinkedIn profiles; over 20,000 companies in the U.S. use LinkedIn to recruit; over 3 million jobs are posted on LinkedIn in the U.S. every month; and members can add over 50,000 skills to their profiles to showcase their professional brands. That gives us unique and valuable insight into U.S. workforce trends.

This LinkedIn Workforce Report is a monthly report on employment trends in the U.S. workforce. It’s divided into two sections: a National section that provides insights into hiring, skills gaps, and migration trends across the country, and a City section that provides insights into localized employment trends in 20 of the largest U.S. metro areas: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland-Akron, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.

Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. Whether you’re a worker, an employer, a new grad, or a policymaker, we hope you’ll use these insights to better understand and navigate the dynamics of today’s economy.

Key Insights

• Hiring | Mirroring trend seen after previous natural disasters, hiring is down across the Midwest. We saw a significant decrease in hiring rates across metro areas in the Midwest impacted by catastrophic flooding, including: Omaha (-7.6%), Fargo (-13.6%,) and Kansas City (-0.6%). Historically, our data shows it takes a city approximately two months for hiring rates to rebound after similarly catastrophic natural disasters -- the year-over-year hiring rates in Houston and Miami dropped sharply (-7.6% and -17.6%, respectively) during the months of hurricanes Irma (September 2017) and Harvey (August 2017).

• Migration | Based on migration trends following other natural disasters, we anticipate the Midwest to lose workers to major cities in the Southwest and West Coast. Miami saw a 62.9% increase in net migration out of the city in the calendar year after Hurricane Irma when compared to the calendar year before, leaving for closeby metros: West Palm Beach, Orlando and Atlanta. Based on what we saw in Miami, we may see an increase in migration out of the Midwest over the next few months. Based on current migration trends in the Midwest, we expect to see an increase in workers moving to: Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Seattle, and Phoenix.

• Industries | Midwest flooding dealt another blow to the already struggling agriculture industry. In the midst of trade wars with China and looming border shutdown, the agriculture industry saw hiring drop 12.3% last month -- and floods in the Midwest corresponded with another 4.4% dip in hiring this month. With so many pockets of the Midwest impacted by flooding and one of its top industries hit the hardest, the region’s economic recovery may be slower than the usual 2-3 month rebound following a natural disaster.

Hiring | Hiring rebounds in March

The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of gross hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, gross hiring in the U.S. was 0.1% lower than in March 2018.

Seasonally-adjusted national hiring was 1.8% higher in March from February 2019.

The industries with the most notable hiring shifts in March were Corporate Services (9.2% higher); Software & IT Services (5.2% higher); and Wellness & Fitness (3.8% higher).

Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through March 2019

Skills Gaps | Gaps still pervasive on coasts

(Note: We recently updated the skills gap methodology in the LinkedIn Workforce Report to include absolute headcounts to precisely measure skills gaps. To learn more about this updated methodology, see here.)

A skills gap is the gap between supply and demand for a specific skill, in a specific local labor market, at a specific point in time. That means that skills gaps are fundamentally local, and specific to the supply and demand of individual skills within a labor market. The U.S. cities with the largest skills gaps overall are New York City, NY; San Francisco Bay Area, CA; and Los Angeles, CA.

New York City, NY; San Francisco Bay Area, CA; and Los Angeles, CA also see the greatest shortages across all skills. To see which skills are driving these massive shortages, check out our localized reports.

The cities with the greatest surpluses across all skills are New York City, NY; Chicago, IL; and Philadelphia, PA.

Check out our localized reports for Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland-Akron, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C., to see top skills in demand locally and other insights.

Migration | College towns remain migration hubs

The U.S. cities losing the most people are Wichita, KS; Bryan-College Station, TX; and State College, PA. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Wichita, KS, 321 left in the past 12 months.

The U.S. cities gaining the most people are Austin, TX; Denver, CO; and Charlotte, NC. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, TX, 134 arrived in the last 12 months.

Austin, TX; Denver, CO; and San Diego, CA are the U.S. cities experiencing the most total migration (workers moving into and out of a city). This list captures the most transient cities. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, TX, 713 arrived in or left the city in the last 12 months.

Check out our reports for Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland-Akron, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C., to see which skills are in shortage in those cities, and which jobs are open.