US Workforce Confidence Index

The US Workforce Confidence Index measures how LinkedIn members are feeling about their careers, investments, personal finances, and more. It uses a scale from -100 to +100 to reflect professionals’ sentiments and expectations about the labor market.

These consumer confidence measures have historically been a key indicator of the economy. LinkedIn is in a unique position to measure how people feel, to understand what challenges they’re facing, and to help find them solutions.

Select from a category below that’ll drive you directly to the up-to-date data covered in the bi-monthly report.

Understanding confidence in the US | Industry confidence breakdown | Location confidence breakdown |
Company size confidence breakdown | Generational confidence breakdown | Deep dive

Understanding confidence in the US

This is what our members in the US told us about how confident they’re feeling across their career advancement and investment, personal finance, and company outlook during the time period of May 18 - May 31, 2020.

Industry confidence breakdown

Members in certain industries are more confident about their opportunities.

Industry	Score
Construction	40
Transportation and Logistics	40
Real Estate	38
Hardware and Networking	35
Finance	34
Manufacturing	34
Software and IT Services	34
Legal	33
Corporate Services	32
Health Care	31
Education	26
Energy and Mining	26
Consumer Goods	25
Public Administration	25
Retail	23
Nonprofit	22
Media and Communications	19
Design	17
Recreation and Travel	17
Entertainment	11

Location confidence breakdown

Members in certain regions of the country are more confident about their opportunities.

Region	Score
Southwest	34
Southeast	36
Rocky Mountain	30
Plains	30
New England	23
Mid-Atlantic	26
Great Lakes	27
Far West	26

Company size confidence breakdown

Members have different levels of confidence based on the size of the company they work for.

Company Size	Score
SMB	30
Mid-market	32
Enterprise	32

Generational confidence breakdown

Members from different generations have different levels of confidence.

Generation	Score
Baby Boomers	26
Gen X	30
Millennials	32
Gen Z	29

Career advancement and investment

In the next 2 weeks...	Increase	Stay the same	Decrease
Time I spend searching for jobs	25%	60%	15%
Number of jobs I apply to	23%	56%	22%
Number of new jobs available	14%	40%	46%
Likelihood I will get a response from recruiter/hiring manager	12%	54%	34%

Personal finances

In the next 6 months...	Increase	Stay the same	Decrease
Earned income / wages (e.g. salary, dividends, etc.)	18%	56%	25%
Personal savings (non-retirement)	30%	46%	24%
Number of investments (e.g. stocks, mutual funds, etc.)	20%	61%	19%
Personal spending (e.g. cash, credit, etc.)	11	44%	45%
Personal payments on recurring debt (e.g. rent, student loans, mortgage, etc.)	16%	71%	13%
Contributions to retirement accounts	17%	62%	21%
Withdrawals from retirement accounts	12%	70%	18%

Productivity

% who agree that...	% Total
I can be effective when working remote	65%
My industry can be effective when working remote	56%

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey that is distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 5,000+ US -based members respond to each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted in to research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners, and retirees are excluded from analysis so that we’re able to get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy.

Data is weighted by engagement level to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership and the overall market population are not accounted for. Confidence index scores are calculated by assigning each respondent a score (-100, -50, 0, 50, 100) based on how much they agree or disagree with each of three statements, and then finding the composite average score across all statements. The three statements are: [Job Security] I feel confident about my ability to get or hold onto a job right now; [Finances] I feel confident about my ability to improve my financial situation in the next 6 months; [Career] I feel confident about my ability to progress in my career in the next year.