LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | April 2020

Over 167 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

  • LinkedIn Chief Economist Karin Kimbrough shared her economic outlook last week as the U.S. labor market braced for the impact of coronavirus, and our data continues to shed light on what’s happening: we’re seeing a sharp decline in hiring, as employers navigate this new normal. Amid our expectation for a challenging few months ahead in the U.S., we do see a glimmer of hope that China may be on a path to normalization as it emerges from its lockdown.
  • Gross hiring across all industries in the U.S. was 1.1% lower than in March 2019, the largest drop in LinkedIn’s hiring rate since January 2017. Looking at trends month-over-month, national hiring was 1.3% lower in March from February 2020, the largest single month decline we’ve seen since February 2016.
  • Our data also reveals the industries that have been most resilient to this pandemic. We’re only seeing slight dips in hiring across Software & IT Services (0.8% lower m/m), Public Safety (1% lower m/m), and Legal (1.2% lower m/m). This may be because many tech companies are now staffing up to support infrastructure for large remote workforces, or given the nature of the work employees are more easily able to work from home.

Hiring

The LinkedIn hiring rate is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Nationally, across all industries, hiring in the U.S. was 1.1% lower than in March 2019. National hiring was 1.3% lower in March from February 2020.

The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in March were Software & IT Services (0.8% lower m/m); Public Safety (1% lower m/m); and Legal (1.2% lower m/m).

Table 1: Hiring on LinkedIn, by Industry, through March 2020

Industry

Mar-19

Dec-19

Jan-20

Feb-20

Mar-20

MoM% Change

YoY% Change

Agriculture

1.20

1.20

1.19

1.21

1.17

-3.5

-2.2

Arts

0.88

0.90

0.89

0.97

0.85

-12.2

-3

Construction

1.16

1.23

1.23

1.25

1.07

-14.7

-7.9

Consumer Goods

1.02

1.10

1.06

1.05

0.85

-19.7

-16.7

Corporate Services

1.11

1.16

1.17

1.17

1.15

-1.7

+3.3

Education

1.04

1.12

1.11

1.14

0.92

-18.9

-10.8

Energy & Mining

1.22

1.12

1.10

1.13

1.04

-7.4

-14.3

Entertainment

0.93

0.98

0.98

0.99

0.81

-17.8

-12.5

Finance

1.12

1.15

1.16

1.14

1.11

-2.5

-1

Hardware & Networking

0.91

0.90

0.87

0.93

0.86

-6.8

-5.2

Health Care

1.07

1.10

1.13

1.10

1.05

-4.4

-2

Legal

1.00

1.03

1.01

1.04

1.03

-1.2

+2.9

Manufacturing

1.15

1.14

1.14

1.16

1.00

-13.8

-13.2

Nonprofit

1.00

1.12

1.06

1.05

0.83

-20.6

-16.9

Public Administration

1.10

1.17

1.12

1.15

1.06

-8.5

-4.3

Public Safety

1.06

1.10

1.13

1.16

1.14

-1

+8

Real Estate

1.22

1.29

1.28

1.30

1.04

-19.7

-14.7

Recreation & Travel

1.08

1.12

1.12

1.13

0.88

-22.2

-18.6

Retail

1.01

1.04

1.05

1.05

0.85

-18.6

-15.9

Software & IT Services

1.15

1.20

1.21

1.20

1.19

-0.8

+3.5

Transportation & Logistics

1.21

1.19

1.20

1.19

1.14

-3.8

-5.7

Wellness & Fitness

1.10

1.20

1.19

1.20

0.95

-20.9

-14.3

Methodology: “Hiring Rate” is the count of hires (LinkedIn members in each industry who added a new employer to their profile in the same month the new job began), divided by the total number of LinkedIn members in the U.S. By only analyzing the timeliest data, we can make accurate month-to-month comparisons and account for any potential lags in members updating their profiles. This number is indexed to the average month in 2015-2016 for each industry; for example, an index of 1.05 indicates a hiring rate that is 5% higher than the average month in 2015-2016.

Migration

The U.S. cities losing the most people  are Bryan-College Station, TX; State College, PA; and Urbana-Champaign, IL. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Bryan-College Station, TX, 256 left in the past 12 months.

The U.S. cities gaining the most people are Austin, TX; Charlotte, NC; and Denver, CO. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Austin, TX, 144 arrived in the last 12 months.

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