LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | September 2019

Over 165 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 35,000 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

• Nationally, across all industries, gross hiring in the U.S. was 0.9% higher than in August 2018. Seasonally-adjusted national hiring did not change between August and July 2019. The industries with the most notable hiring shifts year-over-year in August were Design (40.3% higher y/y); Media & Communications (27.7% higher y/y); and Arts (25.5% higher y/y).

• Seasonally-adjusted national hiring rates continue to show growth since last year, but the manufacturing and agriculture industries have been trending downward since March 2018 - when trade tensions between the U.S. and its major economic partners began to mount. The manufacturing industry is down 0.6% and the agriculture industry is down 2.9% since March 2018, compared to the national hiring rate that is up 3.7% during the same time period.

• Metro areas in the southern United States are seeing some of the sharpest drops in the seasonally-adjusted hiring rate for manufacturing. The hardest-hit metro area since March 2018 is Reno, Nev., with a 47% drop in the manufacturing hiring rate. Three other Sunbelt cities -- Birmingham, Ala.; Little Rock, Ark., and Baton Rouge, La. -- all showed drops of 30% or more. Only one of the ten metro areas with the steepest drops in manufacturing seasonally-adjusted hiring was in the traditional manufacturing heartland of the U.S.: Fort Wayne, Ind.

Hiring

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 0.9% higher than in August 2018.

Seasonally-adjusted national hiring was 0% higher in August from July 2019.

The industries with the most notable hiring shifts in August were Design (40.3% higher); Media & Communications (27.7% higher); and Arts (25.5% higher).

Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through August 2019

Skills Gaps

(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, NY; San Francisco Bay Area, CA; and Los Angeles, CA.

New York City, NY; San Francisco Bay Area, CA; and Los Angeles, CA 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 Philadelphia, PA; Chicago, IL; and New York City, NY.

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

The U.S. cities losing the most people are Wichita, KS; State College, PA; and Bryan-College Station, TX. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Wichita, KS, 253 left in the past 12 months.

The U.S. cities gaining the most people are Austin, TX; Denver, CO; and Nashville, TN. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, TX, 139 arrived in the last 12 months.

Austin, TX; Denver, CO; and San Diego, CA 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, TX, 688 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.