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 June 15 - June 28, 2020.

Industry confidence breakdown

Members in certain industries are more confident about their opportunities.

Industry	Score
Construction	48
Transportation and Logistics	35
Real Estate	43
Hardware and Networking	38
Finance	35
Manufacturing	39
Software and IT Services	34
Legal	37
Corporate Services	34
Health Care	35
Education	30
Energy and Mining	24
Consumer Goods	24
Public Administration	33
Retail	27
Nonprofit	28
Media and Communications	11
Design	20
Recreation and Travel	18
Entertainment	21

Location confidence breakdown

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

Region	Score
Southwest	30
Southeast	35
Rocky Mountain	43
Plains	30
New England	27
Mid-Atlantic	31
Great Lakes	30
Far West	28

Company size confidence breakdown

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

Company Size	Score
SMB	31
Mid-market	34
Enterprise	35

Generational confidence breakdown

Members from different generations have different levels of confidence.

Generation	Score
Baby Boomers	33
Gen X	29
Millennials	32
Gen Z	31

Career advancement and investment

In the next 2 weeks...	Increase	Stay the same	Decrease
Time I spend searching for jobs	26%	61%	13%
Number of jobs I apply to	25%	58%	17%
Number of new jobs available	16%	52%	32%
Likelihood I will get a response from recruiter/hiring manager	15%	60%	25%

Personal finances

In the next 6 months...	Increase	Stay the same	Decrease
Earned income / wages (e.g. salary, dividends, etc.)	24%	57%	19%
Personal savings (non-retirement)	34%	46%	21%
Number of investments (e.g. stocks, mutual funds, etc.)	21%	63%	16%
Personal spending (e.g. cash, credit, etc.)	11%	52%	37%
Personal payments on recurring debt (e.g. rent, student loans, mortgage, etc.)	17%	71%	12%
Contributions to retirement accounts	19%	63%	18%
Withdrawals from retirement accounts	11%	69%	20%

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey from LinkedIn’s Market Research team 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.