LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | January 2018
Over 143 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.
The LinkedIn Workforce Report is a monthly report on employment trends in the U.S. workforce, and this month’s report looks at our latest data through December 2017. 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 worker in the global workforce. Whether you’re a worker, an employer, a new grad, or a policymaker, we hope you’ll use insights from our report to better understand and navigate the dynamics of today’s labor market.
Key Insights
Houston, Phoenix, and Dallas are growing faster than New York City and San Francisco – The Sunbelt is booming. Over the past year, hiring growth in Houston, Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Cleveland-Akron surpassed the national average—and blew past hiring growth rates in big coastal cities like New York City, Seattle, or San Francisco. Compare Houston's 14.6% growth in hiring to the national U.S. average of 10.4%, or Washington, D.C.'s modest 3.5% at the bottom of our list. Read on for the full ranking of cities by hiring growth in 2017. In December alone, hiring across the U.S. was 24.2% higher than in December 2016. Seasonally-adjusted hiring (hiring that excludes seasonal hiring variations) was relatively flat, just 0.7% lower in December than November 2017. The industries that experienced the biggest year-over-year hiring in December were financial services and insurance (23.1% higher); aerospace, automotive, and transportation (22.2% higher); and architecture and engineering (21.1% higher).
Hiring growth doesn’t always mean migration growth – Houston, Phoenix, and Dallas-Ft. Worth are all outperforming the country in terms of hiring growth. But rapid growth in hiring rates doesn’t immediately translate to more people moving to these cities, in spite of improved hiring prospects. For example, Houston is still losing people overall. Houston is noticeably shedding talent to petroleum-rich Odessa-Midland—likely due to the rebound of the oil and energy sector there. On a larger scale, Houston is losing talent to other Southern cities like Atlanta, Nashville, and Charlotte. And Houston is still underperforming other Texas cities in terms of migration; Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, and San Antonio are all drawing talent from Houston. Read on for the scoop on Phoenix and Dallas-Ft. Worth’s migration patterns in 2017.
- Data mining, business development, and sales skills are in demand in SF, NYC, D.C., and LA – Our recent Emerging Jobs Report catalogued the top 20 emerging jobs in the United States. The skills associated with these quickly-growing roles include data mining, business development and relationship management, and sales. Learning these skills is key to obtaining a top emerging job like data scientist or customer success manager. So where to start? Data mining skills are in highest demand in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, and New York City. Business development and relationship management skills are in highest demand in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. And sales skills are needed in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C. and New York City.
Houston, Phoenix, and Dallas are growing faster than New York City and San Francisco
The Sunbelt is booming. Over the past year, hiring growth in Houston, Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Cleveland-Akron surpassed the national average—and blew past hiring growth rates in big coastal cities like New York City, Seattle, and San Francisco. Compare Houston’s 14.6% growth in hiring to the national U.S. average of 10.4%, or Washington, D.C.’s modest 3.5% at the bottom of our list.
What’s driving these cities’ resurgence? Houston’s hiring growth was driven by the rebound of the oil and energy sector. In percentage terms, hiring has increased the most for people skilled in relationship management, sciences, software development, corporate law and governance, and engineering. In absolute terms, hiring has increased most for people skilled in healthcare management, web programming, general finance, lean manufacturing and quality management, and IT infrastructure and system management.
Phoenix, which was slow to recover from the 2008 housing crash, is now thriving with a relatively low cost of living coupled with rapid job growth. Hiring has increased the most in percentage terms (often off a relatively small base) for people skilled in software applications, immigration law, sciences, and oil and gas. In absolute terms, the skills with the greatest increase in hiring over the past year are more common service sector skills, including healthcare management, business development and relationship management, IT infrastructure and system management, education and teaching, and general finance.
Similarly, Dallas-Ft. Worth has affordable housing and a growing job market. Hiring has grown the most, in percentage terms, in sciences, real estate, relocation and cleaning services, dance, and mining and commodities. In absolute terms, the skills with the greatest increase in hiring over the past year are core technology skills, including IT infrastructure and system management, web programming, healthcare management, software engineering management, and C/C++.
The table below ranks the twenty U.S. cities we track by percentage increase of gross hiring from 2016 to 2017.
City | Increase in gross hiring from 2016 to 2017 (%) | |
1 | 14.6% | |
2 | 14.0% | |
3 | 11.7% | |
4 | 10.8% | |
National | 10.4% | |
5 | 10.0% | |
6 | 9.9% | |
7 | 9.6% | |
8 | 9.3% | |
9 | 9.2% | |
10 | 9.0% | |
11 | 8.3% | |
12 | 8.3% | |
13 | 8.1% | |
14 | 7.5% | |
15 | 7.5% | |
16 | 6.6% | |
17 | 5.2% | |
18 | 4.9% | |
19 | 3.9% | |
20 | 3.5% |
In December alone, hiring across the U.S. was 24.2% higher than in December 2016.
Seasonally-adjusted hiring (hiring that excludes seasonal hiring variations) was 0.7% lower in December than November 2017.
Industry Hiring
The industries that experienced the biggest year-over-year hiring in December were financial services and insurance (23.1% higher); aerospace, automotive, and transportation (22.2% higher); and architecture and engineering (21.1% higher).
Hiring growth doesn’t always mean migration growth
Houston, Phoenix, and Dallas-Ft. Worth are all outperforming the country in terms of hiring growth. But rapid growth in hiring rates doesn’t immediately translate to more people moving to these cities; in spite of improved hiring prospects, for example, Houston is still losing more people than it’s gaining.
Houston is noticeably shedding talent to petroleum-rich Odessa-Midland—likely due to the rebound of the oil and energy sector there. On a larger scale, Houston is losing talent to other Southern cities like Atlanta, Nashville, and Charlotte. And Houston is still underperforming other Texas cities in terms of migration; Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, and San Antonio are all drawing talent from Houston.
Over the course of 2017, Phoenix saw an increase in migration from San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County. This exodus from sunny Southern California to sunny Phoenix is likely reflective of California’s higher cost of living. In another sign of strength, Phoenix is one of the few cities pulling talent from Denver, the U.S.’s top migration destination of 2017. That said, Phoenix is also losing some talent to cities in Texas and the Southeast, including Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, and Nashville.
Dallas-Ft. Worth’s inflows from Houston and Southern California strengthened in 2017. Despite Houston’s rebounds in hiring over the past year, the Dallas-Ft. Worth economy is still relatively in better shape overall, and continues to draw talent accordingly. And like Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth’s draw from Southern California is likely due to a combination of strong job growth and comparatively affordable housing costs.
Other cities are attracting talent in droves: Denver, Seattle, and Austin top our list of U.S. cities gaining the most people. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Denver, 68.6 arrived in the last 12 months.
The cities losing the most people are Hartford, Providence, and Pittsburgh. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Hartford, 59.9 left in the past 12 months.
Check out the City 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 most scarce in those cities, and which jobs are open.
Data mining, business development, and sales skills are in demand in SF, NYC, D.C., and LA
Our recent Emerging Jobs Report catalogued the top 20 emerging jobs in the United States. The skills associated with these quickly-growing roles include data mining; business development and relationship management; and sales. Learning these skills is key to obtaining a top emerging job like data scientist or customer success manager.
So where to start? Data mining skills are in highest demand in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, and New York City. Business development and relationship management skills are in highest demand in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. And sales skills are needed in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C. and New York City.
The misalignment between the skills people have (supply) and the skills employers need (demand) is a skills gap. Skills gaps are fundamentally local, and specific to the supply and demand of individual skills. There is an abundance, or surplus, of skills when supply exceeds demand. There is a scarcity, or shortage, of skills when demand exceeds supply. A city with a scarcity of skills needs more people with certain skills, while a city with an abundance of skills has too many people with certain skills.
Skills gaps can be narrowed by people moving to cities where their skills are in demand; by businesses opening up shop in cities where there’s an abundance of the skills they need; by training people to learn the skills that are in demand from employers; and by employers offering higher pay for in-demand skills. In order to narrow skills gaps, cities should seek to understand the dynamics of their own labor markets and create policies to align education and training with employer needs.
The U.S. cities with the largest skills gaps overall are San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Austin. Each of these cities has a scarcity-driven skills gap, which means there is a high unfilled demand for workers with certain skill sets such as healthcare management, or education and teaching. To see which other skills are in scarcity, check out the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C., and Austin City Reports.
The San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, and Washington, D.C. have the greatest scarcity of skills, relative to other U.S. cities. For details on which skills are in high demand, check out their City Reports.
The cities with the greatest abundances of skills, relative to other U.S. cities, are West Palm Beach, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, and Hartford.
Check out the City 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 most scarce in those cities, and which jobs are open.
