LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | August 2020
Over 169 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 36,000 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 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 in the U.S. continues to recover, and is now only 7.4% lower than it was in July 2019. Looking month-over-month, we saw another blockbuster gain of 57.5% in July from June 2020.
- The rebound in hiring has broadened significantly across cities, reflecting economic reopening occurring across a wider range of geographies. While all of the cities we track are still down year over year, 15 of the cities we track posted double-digit increases month over month.
- Many of the strongest gainers this month were catching up from modest declines in June: hiring in Boston shot up to 72% in July, up from -5%; and Chicago wasn’t far behind at 70% growth in July, up from -1%.
- The two cities with the largest gap to fill are New York and Seattle, which both remain down 31% year-over-year; and the closest cities to recovery are Phoenix, now only down 5% year-over-year, and Nashville, down 7% year over year, reflecting earlier reopening in the Sun Belt.
- We’re also seeing industries recover at different speeds, but nearly everyone is recovering. All but two of the industries we track experienced a month-over-month increase, and four were up year-over-year.
- Public administration leads the pack at 12% growth year-over-year, and wellness & fitness followed close behind with 10% growth year-over-year. The legal and agriculture industries posted more modest gains of 5.8% and 3.6% year-over-year, respectively.
- Entertainment and retail saw massive double-digit month-over-month gains during July, 111.8% and 73.7% respectively, but face the threat of expiring fiscal stimulus.
- As we look ahead to the next month, hiring growth remains very vulnerable to the resurgence of COVID and expiring fiscal stimulus.
Hiring
The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, hiring in the U.S. was 7.4% lower than in July 2019. National hiring was 57.5% higher in July from June 2020.
The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in July were Entertainment (111.8% higher m/m); Corporate Services (97.2% higher m/m); and Retail (73.7% higher m/m).
Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through July 2020
Industry | Jul-19 | … | Apr-20 | May-20 | Jun-20 | Jul-20 | MoM% Change | YoY% Change |
Agriculture | 1.10 | … | 0.98 | 0.93 | 1.04 | 1.14 | +10 | +3.6 |
Arts | 0.81 | … | 0.59 | 0.54 | 0.52 | 0.56 | +7.2 | -30.7 |
Construction | 1.17 | … | 0.52 | 0.50 | 0.98 | 1.02 | +4 | -13.2 |
Consumer Goods | 1.04 | … | 0.56 | 0.39 | 0.58 | 0.90 | +57.1 | -12.9 |
1.16 | … | 0.59 | 0.57 | 0.54 | 1.07 | +97.2 | -7.3 | |
Education | 1.06 | … | 0.90 | 0.88 | 0.85 | 0.93 | +9.7 | -12.1 |
Energy & Mining | 1.19 | … | 0.65 | 0.52 | 0.87 | 0.85 | -2.4 | -28.6 |
Entertainment | 0.99 | … | 0.53 | 0.47 | 0.41 | 0.88 | +111.8 | -11.1 |
1.11 | … | 0.76 | 0.67 | 0.70 | 1.10 | +56.7 | -0.9 | |
Hardware & Networking | 0.91 | … | 0.84 | 0.67 | 0.83 | 0.81 | -3.2 | -10.8 |
Health Care | 1.11 | … | 0.83 | 0.69 | 0.80 | 1.06 | +31.9 | -4.7 |
1.02 | … | 0.50 | 0.50 | 0.99 | 1.08 | +8.8 | +5.8 | |
Manufacturing | 1.12 | … | 0.72 | 0.36 | 0.75 | 1.00 | +33.1 | -11.2 |
Nonprofit | 1.02 | … | 0.71 | 0.71 | 0.71 | 0.97 | +36 | -4.8 |
Public Administration | 1.12 | … | 0.81 | 0.82 | 0.86 | 1.25 | +45.1 | +11.8 |
Public Safety | 1.04 | … | 0.85 | 0.82 | 0.88 | 0.95 | +7.9 | -9.2 |
Real Estate | 1.28 | … | 0.60 | 0.64 | 0.89 | 1.17 | +31.6 | -8.9 |
Recreation & Travel | 1.09 | … | 0.81 | 0.78 | 0.79 | 0.80 | +2.1 | -26.4 |
Retail | 1.02 | … | 0.57 | 0.55 | 0.55 | 0.95 | +73.7 | -7 |
1.18 | … | 0.84 | 0.82 | 0.82 | 0.90 | +8.6 | -23.9 | |
1.21 | … | 0.71 | 0.45 | 0.69 | 1.10 | +58.9 | -9.1 | |
Wellness & Fitness | 1.12 | … | 0.83 | 0.83 | 0.87 | 1.24 | +42.8 | +10.4 |
Methodology: “Hiring Rate” is the count of hires (LinkedIn members in each industry who added a new employer to their profile in the same month the new job began), divided by the total number of LinkedIn members in the U.S. By only analyzing the timeliest data, we can make accurate month-to-month comparisons and account for any potential lags in members updating their profiles. This number is indexed to the average month in 2015-2016 for each industry; for example, an index of 1.05 indicates a hiring rate that is 5% higher than the average month in 2015-2016.
Migration
The U.S. cities losing the most people are Bryan-College Station, TX; State College, PA; and Urbana-Champaign, IL. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Bryan-College Station, TX, 266 left in the past 12 months.
The U.S. cities gaining the most people are Austin, TX; Charlotte, NC; and Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, TX, 141 arrived 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.
