LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | June 2021

Over 176 million workers in the U.S. have LinkedIn profiles; over 97,000 companies in the U.S. use LinkedIn to recruit and members can add over 38,000 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 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

  • Nationally across all industries, hiring in the U.S. dropped slightly and was 1.5% lower in May 2021 compared to last month April 2021. However, national hiring was 158.4% higher in May 2021 compared to May 2020, the low point of hiring during the pandemic.

  • The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in May were Recreation & Travel (9.1% higher); Entertainment (7.2% higher); and Retail (5.2% higher). These in-person industries were some of the hardest hit by the pandemic and have been experiencing greater than 4% month-to-month growth for each of the past 4 months.

  • The cities with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in May were Seattle (7.8% higher); Cleveland-Akron (5.2% higher); and Dallas-Ft. Worth (5% higher). Ten out of the 20 cities we track are hiring at or above their pre-COVID level in February 2020, down from twelve last month.

Hiring

The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, hiring in the U.S. was 1.5% lower in May compared to last month April 2021. National hiring was 158.4% higher in May compared to last year May 2020.

 

The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in May were Recreation & Travel (9.1% higher); Entertainment (7.2% higher); and Retail (5.2% higher).

Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through May 2021

 

Industry

May-20

···

Feb-21

Mar-21

Apr-21

May-21

MoM% Change

YoY% Change

Agriculture

0.89

···

1.19

1.32

1.22

1.20

-1.5

+34.5

Arts

0.32

···

0.68

0.69

0.65

0.65

-1.5

+101.9

Construction

0.40

···

1.11

1.24

1.11

1.14

+2.9

+185.1

Consumer Goods

0.40

···

1.00

1.04

1.03

1.08

+4.8

+173.1

Corporate Services

0.58

···

1.15

1.29

1.22

1.24

+1.1

+113.4

Design

0.39

···

0.87

0.93

0.92

0.94

+2.4

+138.3

Education

0.75

···

1.12

1.17

1.13

1.14

+0.8

+51.9

Energy & Mining

0.52

···

0.89

0.98

0.90

0.93

+3.7

+80

Entertainment

0.47

···

0.87

0.93

0.99

1.06

+7.2

+126.6

Finance

0.60

···

1.17

1.28

1.23

1.17

-5

+95.5

Hardware & Networking

0.59

···

0.87

0.96

0.91

0.91

0

+54.8

Health Care

0.62

···

1.18

1.30

1.24

1.25

+0.3

+100.6

Legal

0.48

···

1.00

1.07

1.02

1.02

-0.2

+114.7

Manufacturing

0.60

···

1.07

1.16

1.12

1.07

-4.6

+77.8

Media & Communications

0.46

···

0.98

1.08

1.09

1.07

-1.7

+130.6

Nonprofit

0.76

···

1.05

1.10

1.08

1.07

-0.7

+40.8

Public Administration

0.76

···

1.09

1.16

1.09

1.04

-4.5

+37.8

Public Safety

0.76

···

1.05

1.11

1.10

1.13

+2.1

+49.1

Real Estate

0.57

···

1.27

1.29

1.28

1.27

-1

+120.7

Recreation & Travel

0.60

···

0.84

0.90

1.11

1.21

+9.1

+102.1

Retail

0.39

···

1.00

1.09

1.14

1.20

+5.2

+204.4

Software & IT Services

0.86

···

1.28

1.34

1.36

1.38

+1.5

+61.8

Transportation & Logistics

0.40

···

1.18

1.33

1.29

1.29

0

+224.1

Wellness & Fitness

0.66

···

1.19

1.34

1.26

1.30

+3.2

+95.7

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 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.

Migration

The U.S. cities losing the most people are College Station-Bryan, TX; State College-DuBois, PA; and Lafayette, IN. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in College Station-Bryan, TX, 268 left in the past 12 months.

The U.S. cities gaining the most people are Austin, TX; North Port-Sarasota, FL; and Nashville, TN. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, TX, 131 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.

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