LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | June 2020
Over 169 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
- National hiring across all industries reached an unprecedented low of -37.9% in May than the year before. This new low signals a material bottoming out since we first began to see COVID-19’s impact on hiring in March, as we only saw a 1% drop in May from April 2020.
This bottoming out doesn’t mean we’ll see a quick recovery on the horizon. If we look at hiring trends by industry there are a few noteworthy trends:
Industries showing the sharpest month-over-month losses: Hardware & Networking, which had been holding up relatively well as of April, dropped off in May and is down -25%. Consumer goods also dropped -27% in May, Recreation & Travel dropped 20% and Manufacturing dropped 19%.
Industries that are showing month-over-month growth: Real Estate is up 6.3%, Wellness & Fitness is up 2.5%, and Public Administration is up 0.7%.
Small-business hiring also bottomed out in May, while large companies kept contracting their hiring. More reporting from George Anders here.
- This now months-long hiring depression comes after years of sustained growth, and while we may see signs of recovery soon, any improvement in hiring is from a base of tens of millions of jobs lost. We expect a long and fitful recovery and the U.S. economy won’t feel “normal” for a very long time.
Hiring
The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, hiring in the U.S. was 37.9% lower than in May 2019. National hiring was 1.4% lower in May from April 2020.
The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in May were Real Estate (6.3% higher m/m); Wellness & Fitness (2.5% higher m/m); and Public Administration (0.7% higher m/m).
Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through May 2020
Industry | May-19 | … | Feb-20 | Mar-20 | Apr-20 | May-20 | MoM% Change | YoY% Change |
Agriculture | 1.20 | … | 1.24 | 1.21 | 0.96 | 0.91 | -5.1 | -24 |
Arts | 0.88 | … | 0.64 | 0.57 | 0.51 | 0.43 | -16 | -51 |
Construction | 1.18 | … | 1.20 | 1.18 | 0.53 | 0.52 | -2.8 | -56.3 |
Consumer Goods | 1.03 | … | 1.06 | 0.87 | 0.57 | 0.41 | -27 | -59.9 |
Corporate Services | 1.12 | … | 1.11 | 1.06 | 0.71 | 0.67 | -4.9 | -40 |
Education | 1.09 | … | 1.11 | 0.97 | 0.90 | 0.89 | -0.5 | -18.2 |
Energy & Mining | 1.21 | … | 1.10 | 1.01 | 0.67 | 0.51 | -23.1 | -57.5 |
Entertainment | 0.98 | … | 0.77 | 0.70 | 0.63 | 0.56 | -11.7 | -42.8 |
Finance | 1.12 | … | 1.14 | 1.10 | 0.79 | 0.72 | -8.8 | -35.6 |
Hardware & Networking | 0.92 | … | 0.89 | 0.83 | 0.89 | 0.67 | -25.2 | -27.9 |
Health Care | 1.13 | … | 1.05 | 0.99 | 0.86 | 0.79 | -9.1 | -30.7 |
Legal | 1.06 | … | 1.17 | 0.92 | 0.52 | 0.52 | +0.5 | -50.8 |
Manufacturing | 1.20 | … | 0.91 | 0.81 | 0.69 | 0.55 | -19.2 | -54 |
Nonprofit | 1.00 | … | 1.05 | 0.91 | 0.72 | 0.72 | -0.3 | -28.5 |
Public Administration | 1.07 | … | 1.18 | 1.12 | 0.82 | 0.83 | +0.7 | -22.8 |
Public Safety | 1.09 | … | 1.10 | 1.07 | 0.81 | 0.79 | -2.3 | -27.6 |
Real Estate | 1.23 | … | 1.30 | 1.09 | 0.62 | 0.66 | +6.3 | -46.6 |
Recreation & Travel | 1.14 | … | 0.84 | 0.74 | 0.46 | 0.36 | -20.7 | -68.4 |
Retail | 1.01 | … | 1.00 | 0.97 | 0.56 | 0.53 | -5.5 | -47.1 |
Software & IT Services | 1.18 | … | 1.19 | 1.18 | 0.86 | 0.85 | -1.5 | -28.2 |
Transportation & Logistics | 1.29 | … | 1.12 | 1.02 | 0.69 | 0.57 | -18 | -56 |
Wellness & Fitness | 1.11 | … | 1.22 | 0.97 | 0.76 | 0.78 | +2.5 | -29.7 |
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, 268 left in the past 12 months.
The U.S. cities gaining the most people are Austin, TX; Charlotte, NC; and Seattle, WA. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, TX, 148 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 skills are in shortage in those cities, and which jobs are open.
