LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | February 2021
Over 175 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, 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.
Key Insights
January was the second consecutive seasonally-adjusted month-over-month decline in our data: hiring in the U.S. was 2.8% lower in January 2021 from December 2020, and 7.6% lower than in January 2020. We have good reason to be optimistic that this “double dip” will end soon due to the triple punch of fiscal stimulus, vaccination and better weather.
Nearly all industries were down year-over-year in January, with two exceptions: Agriculture (+1.8%) and Health Care (+0.3%). Another notable industry that has bucked the pessimistic trend is Software & IT (+3% M/M). Its recovery has trailed the rest of the labor market, but in December and January it has pulled further ahead even as the rest of the economy has pulled back, and is now outperforming.
No cities in our data emerged as up year-over-year in January, but Phoenix and Austin did inch up slightly from December. The last time any cities posted year-over-year gains was in November when Dallas and Denver moved into positive territory.
Hiring
The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, hiring in the U.S. was 7.6% lower than in January 2020. National hiring was 2.8% lower in January from December 2020.
The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in January were Legal (3.8% higher m/m); Finance (3.4% higher m/m); and Software & IT Services (3% higher m/m).
Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through January 2021
Industry | Jan-20 | ··· | Oct-20 | Nov-20 | Dec-20 | Jan-21 | MoM% Change | YoY% Change |
Agriculture | 1.11 | ··· | 1.09 | 1.16 | 1.26 | 1.13 | -10.3 | +1.8 |
Arts | 0.87 | ··· | 0.64 | 0.63 | 0.61 | 0.58 | -4.4 | -33.4 |
Construction | 1.21 | ··· | 1.07 | 1.08 | 1.08 | 1.04 | -4.1 | -14 |
Consumer Goods | 0.90 | ··· | 0.77 | 0.77 | 0.77 | 0.76 | -1.3 | -16 |
Corporate Services | 1.09 | ··· | 0.94 | 1.10 | 1.08 | 1.06 | -1.7 | -2.3 |
Education | 1.09 | ··· | 0.92 | 0.94 | 0.97 | 0.96 | -0.3 | -11.9 |
Energy & Mining | 1.06 | ··· | 0.74 | 0.81 | 0.86 | 0.80 | -7.2 | -24.8 |
Entertainment | 0.97 | ··· | 0.74 | 0.74 | 0.75 | 0.69 | -7.7 | -28.8 |
Finance | 1.14 | ··· | 1.05 | 1.08 | 1.05 | 1.09 | +3.4 | -4.3 |
Hardware & Networking | 0.84 | ··· | 0.75 | 0.81 | 0.82 | 0.79 | -3.2 | -5.3 |
Health Care | 1.01 | ··· | 1.02 | 1.02 | 1.02 | 1.02 | +0.1 | +0.3 |
Legal | 0.94 | ··· | 0.84 | 0.85 | 0.87 | 0.91 | +3.8 | -3.8 |
Manufacturing | 1.12 | ··· | 1.00 | 1.02 | 1.01 | 1.01 | +0.8 | -9.1 |
Nonprofit | 1.02 | ··· | 0.93 | 0.94 | 0.94 | 0.90 | -4.3 | -11.2 |
Public Administration | 1.13 | ··· | 1.05 | 1.06 | 1.13 | 1.02 | -9.9 | -9.9 |
Public Safety | 1.06 | ··· | 0.96 | 0.98 | 1.00 | 0.93 | -7.1 | -12.4 |
Real Estate | 1.24 | ··· | 1.20 | 1.21 | 1.21 | 1.19 | -2 | -4.3 |
Recreation & Travel | 1.04 | ··· | 0.55 | 0.55 | 0.55 | 0.55 | -0.4 | -47.1 |
Retail | 1.00 | ··· | 0.95 | 0.99 | 0.98 | 0.94 | -4.1 | -6.4 |
Software & IT Services | 1.16 | ··· | 1.03 | 1.08 | 1.11 | 1.14 | +3 | -1.4 |
Transportation & Logistics | 1.13 | ··· | 1.17 | 1.22 | 1.13 | 1.11 | -1.3 | -1.8 |
Wellness & Fitness | 1.13 | ··· | 1.15 | 1.15 | 1.14 | 1.07 | -6.1 | -5.5 |
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, 265 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, 145 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 jobs are open.
