LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | January 2021
Over 174 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.
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 growth slowed in December, inching up 0.5% from November -- but it did not stop. We’re now the closest we’ve been to full hiring recovery since COVID first hit in February (-2.3% y/y).
- It’s still possible we could see month-over-month changes dip into the negatives over the next few months, but overall we are seeing positive momentum endure even in current extremely challenging conditions. Strong tailwinds in our favor will kick in over the next 4-5 months with fiscal stimulus, the vaccine and warmer weather.
- Nine industries showed year-over-year growth in December, the largest number since February 2020. Notable movers include: Agriculture (+13.1% y/y), Wellness and Fitness (+3.8% y/y) and Retail (+1.9% y/y). As long as overall hiring keeps improving, we anticipate the share of “in the black” industries will grow.
- Workers continue to flock to cities where recovery is the strongest, but we’re seeing that overall the gaps in hiring recovery between places like San Francisco (-6.9% y/y) and New York City (-6.9% y/y), and Austin (-4.2% y/y) and Denver (-3.5% y/y) are getting smaller.
Hiring
The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, hiring in the U.S. was 2.3% lower than in December 2019. National hiring was 0.5% higher in December from November 2020.
The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in December were Public Administration (9.7% higher m/m); Agriculture (8.8% higher m/m); and Energy & Mining (8.3% higher m/m).
Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through December 2020
Industry | Dec-19 | ··· | Sep-20 | Oct-20 | Nov-20 | Dec-20 | MoM% Change | YoY% Change |
Agriculture | 1.10 | ··· | 1.11 | 1.08 | 1.15 | 1.25 | +8.8 | +13.2 |
Arts | 0.89 | ··· | 0.49 | 0.64 | 0.64 | 0.64 | +0 | -28.2 |
Construction | 1.20 | ··· | 1.07 | 1.09 | 1.11 | 1.13 | +1.8 | -6.1 |
Consumer Goods | 1.01 | ··· | 0.86 | 0.91 | 0.95 | 0.99 | +3.8 | -1.8 |
Corporate Services | 1.07 | ··· | 0.93 | 1.00 | 1.09 | 1.03 | -5 | -3.4 |
Education | 1.07 | ··· | 0.83 | 0.98 | 1.00 | 1.05 | +4.7 | -1.3 |
Energy & Mining | 1.05 | ··· | 0.73 | 0.74 | 0.82 | 0.88 | +8.3 | -16 |
Entertainment | 0.83 | ··· | 0.67 | 0.84 | 0.78 | 0.72 | -7.6 | -13.3 |
Finance | 1.17 | ··· | 0.98 | 1.05 | 1.08 | 1.06 | -1.7 | -9.4 |
Hardware & Networking | 0.84 | ··· | 0.71 | 0.74 | 0.80 | 0.82 | +2.6 | -2.2 |
Health Care | 1.01 | ··· | 1.00 | 1.02 | 1.01 | 1.02 | +0.7 | +1.2 |
Legal | 1.03 | ··· | 0.68 | 0.89 | 0.90 | 0.93 | +2.8 | -9.7 |
Manufacturing | 1.10 | ··· | 0.97 | 1.01 | 1.02 | 1.02 | 0 | -7.7 |
Nonprofit | 0.99 | ··· | 0.92 | 0.94 | 0.95 | 0.95 | -0.2 | -4 |
Public Administration | 1.11 | ··· | 1.02 | 1.05 | 1.06 | 1.17 | +9.7 | +5 |
Public Safety | 0.99 | ··· | 0.94 | 0.98 | 0.99 | 1.01 | +2.6 | +2 |
Real Estate | 1.21 | ··· | 1.17 | 1.22 | 1.22 | 1.22 | -0.2 | +0.7 |
Recreation & Travel | 0.86 | ··· | 0.65 | 0.60 | 0.56 | 0.52 | -7.1 | -38.8 |
Retail | 0.99 | ··· | 0.86 | 1.00 | 1.01 | 1.01 | 0 | +1.9 |
Software & IT Services | 1.15 | ··· | 0.94 | 1.03 | 1.08 | 1.11 | +3.4 | -2.7 |
Transportation & Logistics | 1.12 | ··· | 1.08 | 1.16 | 1.22 | 1.13 | -7 | +1.1 |
Wellness & Fitness | 1.11 | ··· | 1.09 | 1.16 | 1.16 | 1.15 | -0.5 | +3.8 |
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, 274 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, 142 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.
