LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | May 2024
With over 214 million LinkedIn members in the United States, we have unique insight into the real-time dynamics of Americans starting new jobs and moving to new cities. This month’s LinkedIn Workforce Report looks at our latest national data on hiring and migration trends through April 2024.
For more insight into localized employment trends in 20 of the largest U.S. metro areas, check out this month’s 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.
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
Stabilization in hiring continues: Nationally, across all industries, hiring slowed by 0.2% from March to April and decreased 9.5% compared to April 2023. While hiring is still slowing, this is the smallest year-over-year decline seen since August 2022, and the pace of hiring has only slowed by 1% since January. Therefore, the majority of the slowdown still looks to be behind us, and stabilization continues to be the trend.
Hiring differs greatly across a variety of industries: Hiring increased in 7 of 20 industries from March to April; only a slight gain on the 6 industries that saw increases in last month’s report. The industries with the strongest acceleration compared to March were Holding Companies (+22.6%), Consumer Services (+3.5%); and Education (+3.5%). Hiring decelerated the most month-over-month in Utilities (-4.9), Administrative & Support Services (-3.9) and Accommodation and Food Services (-3.6). The Technology, Information, and Media sector continues to lead hiring stabilization, changing little from March to April (+0.3%) and only down -2.3% year-over-year - second only to Consumer Services. While the overall hiring rate has slowed 7.3% since July 2023, the hiring rate for Technology, Information, and Media has accelerated 7.2% within that same timeframe.
Hiring across all metros remains depressed YoY: Hiring increased in 6 of the 20 metro areas we track in April. While hiring remains down in all metros we track compared to one year prior, new and old tech hubs Austin (-5.1%) and the San Francisco Bay Area (-6.3%) continued to put in the strongest year-over-year hiring performances. In terms of month-over month changes, the cities with the most notable hiring shifts in April 2024 were St. Louis (+3.4%); Detroit (+2.8%); and Philadelphia (+2.2%). And cities such as Cleveland-Akron (-6.7%), San Francisco Bay Area (-3.4%), and Minneapolis-St. Paul (-3.3%) demonstrated the weakest month-over-month changes in hiring.
Hiring
The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, hiring in the U.S. was 0.2% lower in April 2024 compared to last month March 2024. National hiring was 9.5% lower in April 2024 compared to last year April 2023.
The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in April 2024 were Holding Companies (22.6% higher); Consumer Services (3.5% higher); and Education (3.5% higher).
Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through April 2024
Industry | Apr-23 | ··· | Jan-24 | Feb-24 | Mar-24 | Apr-24 | MoM% Change | YoY% Change |
Accommodation and Food Services | 1.00 | ··· | 0.92 | 0.96 | 0.98 | 0.94 | -3.6 | -6.1 |
Administrative and Support Services | 1.00 | ··· | 0.81 | 0.91 | 0.91 | 0.87 | -3.9 | -13 |
Construction | 1.24 | ··· | 1.18 | 1.17 | 1.18 | 1.17 | -1 | -5.5 |
Consumer Services | 1.19 | ··· | 1.11 | 1.17 | 1.15 | 1.19 | +3.5 | +0 |
Education | 1.26 | ··· | 1.14 | 1.15 | 1.12 | 1.16 | +3.5 | -7.5 |
Entertainment Providers | 0.98 | ··· | 0.94 | 0.93 | 0.92 | 0.91 | -1.2 | -7 |
Farming, Ranching, Forestry | 1.31 | ··· | 1.06 | 1.08 | 1.09 | 1.10 | +0.8 | -16.1 |
Financial Services | 1.12 | ··· | 0.96 | 0.99 | 0.97 | 0.97 | -0.1 | -13.7 |
Government Administration | 1.24 | ··· | 1.09 | 1.12 | 1.11 | 1.08 | -2.4 | -12.5 |
Holding Companies | 0.93 | ··· | 0.80 | 0.78 | 0.71 | 0.86 | +22.6 | -7.2 |
Hospitals and Health Care | 1.22 | ··· | 1.10 | 1.12 | 1.12 | 1.10 | -1.9 | -10.2 |
Manufacturing | 1.04 | ··· | 0.87 | 0.90 | 0.88 | 0.91 | +3.1 | -12.5 |
Oil, Gas, and Mining | 1.11 | ··· | 0.88 | 0.89 | 0.87 | 0.87 | -0.4 | -21.4 |
Professional Services | 0.97 | ··· | 0.89 | 0.90 | 0.89 | 0.87 | -2.5 | -10.1 |
Real Estate and Equipment Rental Services | 1.08 | ··· | 0.94 | 0.95 | 0.97 | 0.96 | -0.6 | -10.7 |
Retail | 0.88 | ··· | 0.81 | 0.86 | 0.85 | 0.82 | -3 | -6.7 |
Technology, Information and Media | 0.88 | ··· | 0.82 | 0.87 | 0.86 | 0.86 | +0.3 | -2.3 |
Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage | 1.18 | ··· | 1.03 | 1.02 | 1.00 | 1.01 | +0.6 | -14.5 |
Utilities | 1.48 | ··· | 1.14 | 1.12 | 1.22 | 1.16 | -4.9 | -22 |
Wholesale | 0.94 | ··· | 0.82 | 0.83 | 0.85 | 0.84 | -1.3 | -10 |
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.
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.
