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

• Government Shutdown | Ongoing instability may cause a public sector brain drain.  - The hiring rate of government agencies affected by the shutdown is currently about 50% lower than the hiring rate of agencies unaffected by the shutdown, but hiring in D.C. has been slowing over the past several months in general. Since the summer, D.C. hiring has been down 8.4% - the worst of any of the 20 cities analyzed in the Workforce Report - which may lead to a significant shift of talent and skills out of the public sector.

• Recruiting | Federal employees are open to new opportunities. -  The Open Candidates feature, which allows LinkedIn members to discreetly signal to recruiters that they are open to new opportunities, saw a 59% increase in workers at affected agencies turning it on relative to their unaffected counterparts, and recruiters are taking notice. In looking at LinkedIn data from January 2019 versus the same period of time in 2018, InMails sent to impacted workers increased nearly 60% relative to unaffected workers, largely driven by companies in the tech and gig economy spaces.

• Hiring | Mild slowdown of national hiring may have bottomed out.  Nationally, across all industries, gross hiring in the U.S. was 7.2% lower than in January 2018. That said, seasonally-adjusted national hiring was unchanged (0.0%) in January from December 2018, and we’re looking for signs that the mild slowdown of hiring experienced since the summer has bottomed out. The industries with the most notable hiring shifts in January were Software & IT Services (0.2% higher); Corporate Services (0.4% lower); and Public Safety (1.2% lower).

Hiring  | Mild slowdown of national hiring may have bottomed out

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 7.2% lower than in January 2018.

Seasonally-adjusted national hiring was unchanged (0.0% change) in January from December 2018.

The industries with the most notable hiring increases in January were Software & IT Services (0.2% higher); Corporate Services (0.4% lower); and Public Safety (1.2% lower).

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

Skills Gaps | Coastal cities still facing skills shortages

(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.

San Francisco Bay Area, CA; New York City, NY; 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 | Austin continues to gain steam among workers

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, 344 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, 131 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, 725 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.