LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | February 2025
With over 225 million LinkedIn members in the United States, we have unique insight into the real-time dynamics of Americans starting new jobs and moving to new cities. This month’s LinkedIn Workforce Report looks at our latest national data on hiring and migration trends through January 2025.
For more insight into localized employment trends in 20 of the largest U.S. metro areas, check out this month’s 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.
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 steadies to start 2025: Nationally, across all industries, hiring slowed by 1.3% from December to January, slowing -4.2% compared to January 2024. However, this is the smallest year-over-year decline since the LinkedIn Hiring Rate began declining in Spring 2022. Despite notable swings due to major events like weather and strikes, the pace of overall hiring looks to have stabilized after last summer.
- Narrow industry hiring gains in January: Hiring increased in 3 out 20 industries from December to January. The industries where hiring accelerated the most month-over-month were Farming, Ranching, Forestry (+4.4%), Government Administration (+1.6%), and Hospitals and Health Care (+0.4%). Most industries hiring saw modest declines from December to January. Hiring slowed the most in Administrative and Support Services (-10.7%), Real Estate and Equipment Rental Services (-12.3%), and Wholesale (-19.1%). However, hiring was up in January 2025 compared to January 2024 in three industries: Financial Services (+3.2%), Accommodation and Food Services (+2.3%), and Technology, Information and Media (+1.5%). A few of the interest rate sensitive industries, such as Technology, Information, and Media, and with Financial Services, look to have stabilized after sizable declines following the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes in 2022.
Hiring gains narrow across major metros: Hiring accelerated in 4 out of 20 metro areas we track from December to January. We saw the greatest hiring gains in Miami-Fort Lauderdale (+3.1%), Detroit (+2.6%), and Philadelphia (+2.5%). Hiring slowed the most in Houston (-2.8%), Los Angeles (-3.5%) and Cleveland (-7.2%). Hiring was only up in January 2025 compared to January 2024 in Detroit and New York City and was virtually unchanged in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, the sunbelt continues to hire robustly despite slowing during 2024 with hiring in Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Phoenix up compared to pre-pandemic levels and hiring near its pre-pandemic pace in Houston, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth metros.
Hiring
The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, hiring in the U.S. was 1.3% lower in January 2025 compared to last month December 2024. National hiring was 4.2% lower in January 2025 compared to last year January 2024.
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED HIRING
The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in January 2025 were Farming, Ranching, Forestry (4.4% higher); Government Administration (1.6% higher); and Hospitals and Health Care (0.3% higher).
Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through January 2025
Industry | Jan-24 | ··· | Oct-24 | Nov-24 | Dec-24 | Jan-25 | MoM% Change | YoY% Change |
Accommodation and Food Services | 0.92 | ··· | 0.87 | 0.91 | 0.96 | 0.94 | -2.1 | +2.3 |
Administrative and Support Services | 0.85 | ··· | 0.78 | 0.85 | 0.90 | 0.80 | -10.7 | -5.9 |
Construction | 1.26 | ··· | 1.12 | 1.15 | 1.20 | 1.20 | -0.4 | -4.9 |
Consumer Services | 1.15 | ··· | 1.14 | 1.15 | 1.14 | 1.13 | -0.5 | -1.7 |
Education | 1.18 | ··· | 1.14 | 1.11 | 1.14 | 1.13 | -1 | -4.2 |
Entertainment Providers | 0.96 | ··· | 0.88 | 0.87 | 0.88 | 0.85 | -3.3 | -11.5 |
Farming, Ranching, Forestry | 1.10 | ··· | 0.96 | 0.98 | 0.92 | 0.96 | +4.4 | -12.8 |
Financial Services | 0.98 | ··· | 0.98 | 0.95 | 1.02 | 1.01 | -1 | +3.2 |
Government Administration | 1.14 | ··· | 1.03 | 1.02 | 1.05 | 1.07 | +1.6 | -6.3 |
Holding Companies | 0.83 | ··· | 0.73 | 0.72 | 0.74 | 0.73 | -0.8 | -11.5 |
Hospitals and Health Care | 1.15 | ··· | 1.07 | 1.07 | 1.09 | 1.09 | +0.3 | -5 |
Manufacturing | 0.92 | ··· | 0.83 | 0.83 | 0.86 | 0.84 | -2.2 | -9 |
Oil, Gas, and Mining | 0.91 | ··· | 0.85 | 0.81 | 0.85 | 0.80 | -6.7 | -12.7 |
Professional Services | 0.92 | ··· | 0.86 | 0.86 | 0.89 | 0.87 | -2.7 | -5.2 |
Real Estate and Equipment Rental Services | 0.94 | ··· | 0.89 | 0.95 | 0.98 | 0.86 | -12.3 | -8.7 |
Retail | 0.82 | ··· | 0.79 | 0.82 | 0.83 | 0.82 | -2.1 | -0.5 |
Technology, Information and Media | 0.84 | ··· | 0.84 | 0.82 | 0.92 | 0.85 | -7.4 | +1.5 |
Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage | 1.04 | ··· | 0.97 | 0.99 | 1.03 | 0.98 | -4.7 | -5.5 |
Utilities | 1.22 | ··· | 1.11 | 1.09 | 1.14 | 1.12 | -1.6 | -8.1 |
Wholesale | 0.87 | ··· | 0.76 | 0.82 | 0.89 | 0.72 | -19.1 | -16.9 |
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 2016 for each industry; for example, an index of 1.05 indicates a hiring rate that is 5% higher than the average month in 2016.
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.
