LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | May 2018
Over 146 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. This gives us unique insights 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 April 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
Hiring strong and stable through April – In April, hiring across the U.S. was 19.8% higher than in April 2017. Seasonally-adjusted hiring, nationally, was 2.1% higher in April than in March 2018. The industries with the biggest year-over-year hiring increases in April were aerospace, automotive, and transportation (23.3% higher); financial services & insurance (22.2% higher); and manufacturing and industrial (17.3% higher).
The U.S. needs 230,000 more people with marketing skills – Companies, large and small, need marketing to grow. Small businesses may not have resources for a full-time marketing hire, but they still need these skills—which range from social media and digital marketing, to market research and branding. Given how critical marketing skills are across sectors, we were surprised to find that the U.S. has a national shortage of 230,000 people with marketing skills. The San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and even New York City—the center of the advertising universe—have the greatest shortages of people with these skills. But smaller cities like Nashville, Charlotte and Tucson also have a shortage. So where are all the marketers? The cities with the biggest surpluses are Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, St. Louis, Las Vegas, and Orange County.
Americans are moving from high-tax states to low-tax states, but the driver isn’t what you may think – This month we took a look at migration trends through the lens of state tax burdens, inclusive of income, sales, and property taxes. Though there is a correlation between states with lower taxes and states that more people are moving to, the states with the very lowest tax burdens aren’t the top attractors in terms of migration inflows. Instead, the cities gaining the most people are those rich in economic opportunities - with strong hiring and relatively affordable housing. The U.S. cities gaining the most people are Denver, Austin, and Seattle, which each have tax burdens near the middle of the pack.
Hiring strong and stable through April
In April, hiring across the U.S. was 19.8% higher than in April 2017.
Seasonally-adjusted hiring was 2.1% higher in April than in March 2018.
Industry Hiring
The industries with the biggest year-over-year hiring increases in March were aerospace, automotive, and transportation (23.3% higher); financial services & insurance (22.2% higher); and manufacturing and industrial (17.3% higher).
The U.S. needs 230,000 more people with marketing skills
Companies, large and small, need marketing to grow. Small businesses may not have resources for a full-time marketing hire, but they still need these skills—which range from social media and digital marketing, to market research and branding.
Given how critical marketing skills are across sectors, we were surprised to find that the U.S. has a national shortage of 230,000 people with marketing skills. The San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and even New York City—the center of the advertising universe—have the greatest shortages of people with these skills. But smaller cities like Nashville, Charlotte and Tucson also have a shortage.
So where are all the marketers? The cities with the biggest surpluses are Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, St. Louis, Las Vegas, and Orange County. Other cities with intense surpluses relative to their population size include Daytona Beach, Sarasota; Lakeland; and Saginaw. So if you’re trying to hire a marketer to grow your business, these might be a great place to find someone with the skills you need.
Skills gaps like these 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 the San Francisco Bay Area, 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.
Americans are moving from high-tax states to low-tax states, but the driver isn’t what you may think
This month we took a look at migration trends through the lens of state tax burdens, inclusive of income, sales, and property taxes. Though there is a correlation between states with lower taxes and states that more people are moving to, the states with the very lowest tax burdens weren’t the top attractors in terms of migration inflows. Instead, the cities gaining the most people are those rich in economic opportunities - with strong hiring and relatively affordable housing.
The cities losing the most people are Hartford, Providence, and Pittsburgh. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Hartford, 61.8 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.
