Over 150 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. 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 | US hiring growth shows signs of leveling off – Nationally, across all industries, gross hiring in the U.S. was 1.1% lower than in September 2017. Seasonally-adjusted national hiring remained steady, with no change from August 2018. This may be an early sign of hiring growth starting to level off, after rising at a decent clip through most of 2017 and 2018. The industries with the biggest year-over-year hiring increases in September were transportation & logistics (7.5% higher);  energy & mining (4.6% higher); and manufacturing (3.1% higher). In Miami, hiring was notably up 31.2% from last year, in a rebound from Hurricane Irma’s impact to hiring in September 2017.

• Migration | Nashville, Charlotte, and Las Vegas surpass Seattle as top destinations – In September, Nashville (#3), Charlotte (#4), and Las Vegas (#5) sprung past Seattle (previously #1, now #6!) in our rankings of U.S. cities gaining the most workers. Over the past two years, hiring rates in these cities have risen significantly: +11.2% in Nashville, +11.7% in Charlotte, and a whopping +20.4% in Las Vegas.  So what’s pulling people to these cities, ahead of our previous high-flyer? Seattle is now witnessing similar challenges as the San Francisco Bay Area: huge talent inflows combined with limited housing supply are restricting affordability and slowing migration growth. Conversely, Nashville, Charlotte and Las Vegas have strong job opportunities coupled with more affordable housing markets. These rising cities are attracting talent from top metros like Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as from smaller regional urban areas like Knoxville, TN (the origin of 4.5% of workers new to Nashville), Greensboro-Winston-Salem, NC (4.1% of workers to Charlotte), and Orange County, CA (5.2% of workers to Las Vegas).

• Skills Gaps | Cities on the rise see growth in tech and  retail  – Nashville, Charlotte and Las Vegas may be best known for their healthcare, financial, and entertainment industries respectively, but tech is growing in importance too. Employer demand for data scientists is off the charts nationally, and we’re seeing the same trend manifest locally in these rising cities over the past 12 months. Nashville currently has a slight-but-growing shortage of 903 people with data science skills, with Charlotte’s shortage at 1,905 people, and Las Vegas at 517 people. Across these cities, demand is also up for people with retail skills (which have flipped to a shortage in each city over the past year) like retail sales, merchandising, and store management. Increased retail activity is a good indicator that a city’s economy is performing well, as new workers bring more disposable income with them. Simultaneously, labor markets for skills associated with each city’s core sectors are beginning to tighten up, with Charlotte seeing investment banking and capital markets skills shifting into shortage,  Nashville seeing a shortage of 384 people in nursing, and a shortage of 201 people with travel management skills in Las Vegas. As labor markets tighten nationally across a growing swath of industries, occupations and skills, more cities are reaping the benefits - especially cities with warm weather and affordable housing, like Nashville, Charlotte, and Las Vegas.

Hiring | US hiring growth shows signs of leveling off

The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of gross hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, gross hiring in the U.S. was 1.1% lower than in September 2017. This may be an early sign of hiring growth starting to level off, after rising at a decent clip through most of 2017 and 2018.

Seasonally-adjusted national hiring was steady through September, with no change from August 2018.

The industries with the biggest year-over-year hiring increases in September were transportation & logistics (7.5% higher);  energy & mining (4.6% higher); and manufacturing (3.1% higher).

(Note: We recently updated our industry taxonomy from 13 industry groupings to 24 industry groupings, in order to provide more granular insights. Let us know if you have any feedback on the new format!)

Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through September 2018

Migration | Nashville, Charlotte, and Las Vegas surpass Seattle as top destinations

In September, Nashville (#3), Charlotte (#4), and Las Vegas (#5) sprung past Seattle (previously #1, now #6!) in our rankings of U.S. cities gaining the most workers. Over the past two years, hiring rates in these cities have risen significantly: +11.2% in Nashville, +11.7% in Charlotte, and a whopping +20.4% in Las Vegas.  

So what’s pulling people to these cities, ahead of our previous high-flyer? Seattle is now witnessing similar challenges as the San Francisco Bay Area: huge talent inflows combined with limited housing supply are restricting affordability and slowing migration growth. Conversely, Nashville, Charlotte and Las Vegas have strong job opportunities coupled with more affordable housing markets.

These rising cities are attracting talent from top metros like Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as from smaller regional urban areas like Knoxville, TN (the origin of 4.5% of workers new to Nashville), Greensboro-Winston-Salem, NC (4.1% of workers to Charlotte), and Orange County, CA (5.2% of workers to Las Vegas).

Overall, the U.S. cities gaining the most people are Austin, Denver, and Nashville. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, 118 arrived in the last 12 months.

The cities losing the most people are Wichita, KS; State College, PA; and Bryan-College Station, TX. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Wichita, 298 departed in the last 12 months.

Austin, Denver, and San Diego are the U.S. cities experiencing the most total migration (workers moving into and out of a city). This list captures the most transient cities. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, 713.5 arrived in or left the city in the last 12 months.

Check out our localized 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.

Skills Gaps | Cities on the rise see growth in tech and  retail

Nashville, Charlotte and Las Vegas may be best known for their healthcare, financial, and entertainment industries respectively, but tech is growing in importance too. Employer demand for data scientists is off the charts nationally, and we’re seeing the same trend manifest locally in these rising cities over the past 12 months. Nashville currently has a slight-but-growing shortage of 903 people with data science skills, with Charlotte’s shortage at 1,905 people, and Las Vegas at 517 people.

Across these cities, demand is also up for people with retail skills (which have flipped to a shortage in each city over the past year) like retail sales, merchandising, and store management. Increased retail activity is a good indicator that a city’s economy is performing well, as new workers bring more disposable income with them.

Simultaneously, labor markets for skills associated with each city’s core sectors are beginning to tighten up, with Charlotte seeing investment banking and capital markets skills shifting into shortage,  Nashville seeing a shortage of 384 people in nursing, and a shortage of 201 people with travel management skills in Las Vegas. As labor markets tighten nationally across a growing swath of industries, occupations and skills, more cities are reaping the benefits - especially cities with warm weather and affordable housing, like Nashville, Charlotte, and Las Vegas.

(Note: We recently updated the skills gap methodology in the LinkedIn Workforce Report to include absolute headcounts to precisely measure skills gaps. To learn more about this updated methodology, see here.)

A skills gap is the gap between supply and demand for a specific skill, in a specific local labor market, at a specific point in time. That means that skills gaps are fundamentally local, and specific to the supply and demand of individual skills within a labor market. The U.S. cities with the largest skills gaps overall are New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles.

San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and Los Angeles also see the greatest shortages across all skills. To see which skills are driving these massive shortages, check out our localized reports.

The cities with the greatest surpluses across all skills are New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. You’ll notice that New York City has the biggest shortages and surpluses; because it is the most populous city, its shortages and surpluses have greater magnitudes.

Check out our localized 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 top skills in demand locally and other insights.