With over 150 million LinkedIn members in the United States, we have unique insight into the real-time dynamics of Americans starting new jobs, learning new skills, and moving to new cities. This month’s LinkedIn Workforce Report looks at our latest national data on hiring, skills, and migration trends through July 2018. 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

• Hiring | Agriculture hiring is growing – Nationally, across all industries, gross hiring in the U.S. was 2.9% higher than in August 2017. Seasonally-adjusted national hiring was steady, up a slight 0.1% in August from July 2018. The industries with the biggest year-over-year hiring increases in August were agriculture (19.9% higher); transportation & logistics (13% higher); and energy & mining (10.9% higher). In another notable increase, Houston’s hiring rate was up 20.3% from August 2017, reflecting a rebound from Hurricane Harvey -- which severely depressed hiring numbers at this time last year.

• Skills Gaps | Retail on the rebound – Hiring in the retail industry may only be up 0.5% from last August, but employer demand for retail workers is surging, belying the “retail apocalypse” narrative that’s dominated in recent years. Since January 2018, the national surplus of people with retail skills has decreased from a massive 115,155 people down to 11,632 people as of August 2018. While it’s still a national surplus, this represents one of the highest changes in demand across all the skills we track - and some cities even have growing local shortages. New York City, for instance, has swung from a surplus of 2,692 people with retail sales skills  in January to a shortage of 6,168 people by July. This could reflect the decrease in rent for retail spaces in the city over the past year, which has spurred a wave of retailers to open shop. The other largest shortages for retail sales skills are in the San Francisco Bay Area (10,429 people) and Seattle (3,804 people).  Conversely, the largest surpluses of people with these skills are in Chicago (3,311 people), Minneapolis-St. Paul (2,733 people), and Philadelphia (2,683 people).

• Migration | They’re not in Wichita, Kansas, anymore – Wichita, Kansas, is losing more workers than any other U.S. city. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Wichita, 280 left in the past 12 months. Their destinations are diverse, with top destinations including Los Angeles (4.1% of departures),  Dallas-Ft. Worth (3.8%), Houston (3.8%), Atlanta (3.5%), and New York City (3.5%). Hiring in Wichita is down 6.5% since last August, and the city has a skills surplus of 28,513 people  – which indicates there are many more skilled workers than employers are currently hiring. Recent government data indicates that higher-paying jobs are leaving smaller cities like Wichita, and skills commonly associated with these positions (business management, leadership, project management) are among the top 5 of surpluses in Wichita according to our data. But there are still opportunities available in Wichita: the top local employers hiring today are Spirit AeroSystems, Wichita State University, Wichita Public Schools, Cargill, and Textron Aviation. 

Hiring | Agriculture hiring is growing

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 2.9% higher than in August 2017.

Seasonally-adjusted national hiring was steady, up a slight 0.1% in August from July 2018.

The industries with the biggest year-over-year hiring increases in August were agriculture (19.9% higher); transportation & logistics (13% higher); and energy & mining (10.9% 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 August 2018

Skills Gaps | Retail on the rebound

Hiring in the retail industry may only be up 0.5% from last August, but employer demand for retail workers is surging, belying the “retail apocalypse” narrative that’s dominated in recent years.

Since January 2018, the national surplus of people with retail sales skills has decreased from a massive 115,155 people down to 11,632 people as of August 2018. While it’s still a national surplus, this represents one of the highest changes in demand across all the skills we track - and some cities even have growing local shortages. New York City, for instance, has swung from a surplus of 2,692 people with retail sales skills  in January to a shortage of 6,168 people by July. This could reflect the decrease in rent for retail spaces in the city over the past year, which has spurred a wave of retailers to open shop.New York City, for instance, has swung from a surplus of 2,692 people with retail sales skills  in January to a shortage of 6,168 people by July. This could reflect the decrease in rent for retail spaces in the city over the past year, which has spurred a wave of retailers to open shop.

The other largest shortages for retail sales skills are in the San Francisco Bay Area (10,429 people) and Seattle (3,804 people).  Conversely, the largest surpluses of people with these skills are in Chicago (3,311 people), Minneapolis-St. Paul (2,733 people), and Philadelphia (2,683 people).

(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.

Migration | They’re not in Wichita, Kansas, anymore

Wichita, Kansas, is losing more workers than any other U.S. city. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Wichita, 280 left in the past 12 months.

Their destinations are diverse, with top destinations including Los Angeles (4.1% of departures),  Dallas-Ft. Worth (3.8%), Houston (3.8%), Atlanta (3.5%), and New York City (3.5%). Hiring in Wichita is down 6.5% since last August, and the city has a skills surplus of 28,513 people  – which indicates there are many more skilled workers than employers are currently hiring.

After Wichita, the cities losing the most people are Bryan-College Station and Urbana-Champaign. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Bryan-College Station, 239 left in the past 12 months.

Overall, the U.S. cities gaining the most people are Austin, Denver, and Nashville. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, 107 arrived 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, 674.7 arrived in or left the city 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.