Over 190 million workers in the U.S. have LinkedIn profiles; over 30,000 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

• Hiring | U.S. hiring slows modestly - U.S. hiring has moderated since the summer with declines in November and December. Across all industries, national gross hiring in the U.S. was 4.1% higher than in December 2017, but seasonally-adjusted national hiring was 0.7% lower in December from November 2018. The cities with the biggest year-over-year declines in December were Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL (4.4% lower) and St. Louis, MO (2.4% lower). Despite the overall decline, industries like Software & IT Services (13% higher); Corporate Services (11.5% higher); and Agriculture (11.1% higher) demonstrated significant year-over-year hiring increases in December.

• Skills | Business skills surge in importance in traditional finance hubs - It’s not just cutting-edge tech skills that are in high demand. Business management skills - such as strategy, vendor management, and change management - are becoming relatively more important in traditional finance hubs such as New York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. At the same time, finance-related skills have become relatively less important in these regions over the same time period.

• Migration | Coastal workers are meeting in the middle - Austin continues to draw the most workers and has the biggest year-over-year increase in hiring rate of all cities (15.8% higher). For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, 130 arrived within the past 12 months. This inflow into Austin has coincided with the city’s strong economic growth, and most new arrivals are largely coming from coastal powerhouses like the San Francisco Bay Area (8.1%), and New York City (5.8%).

Hiring | U.S. Hiring Slows Modestly

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 4.1% higher than in December 2017.

Seasonally-adjusted national hiring was 0.7% lower in December from November 2018.

The industries with the biggest year-over-year hiring increases in December were Software & IT Services (13% higher); Corporate Services (11.5% higher); and Agriculture (11.1% higher).

Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through December 20

Skills Genome | Business skills surge in importance in traditional finance hubs

Cutting-edge tech skills - including data storage, data science, and software development - as well as business management skills - such as strategy, vendor management, and change management - have become relatively more important in the largest US metro areas over the past three years.

At the same time, finance-related skills have become relatively less important in these regions over the same time period. In other words, the skill mix of the largest US regions are starting to shift towards technology and business management, and away from finance.

The decline of the relative importance of finance skills is driven by skills related to investment such as PE, hedge fund, trading and banking such as investment banking and security regulation. New York and Chicago, cities that traditionally have the highest concentration in finance among all US regions, have seen the concentration of these skills decline significantly. This trend continues outside of major hubs to include cities like Charlotte, Philadelphia and Boston.

Skills Gaps | Coastal Cities Facing Largest Skills Gaps

(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 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.

Migration | Coastal workers are meeting in the middle

The U.S. cities losing the most people are Wichita, KS; State College, PA; and Bryan-College Station, TX. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Wichita, KS, 347 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, 130 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, 726 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.