LinkedIn Workforce Report | United States | October 2017
Over 141 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 50,000 skills to their profiles to showcase their professional brands. This gives us unique insights into U.S. workforce trends.
The LinkedIn Workforce Report is a monthly report on employment trends in the U.S. workforce, and this month’s report looks at our latest data from September 2017. It’s divided into two sections: a National section that provides insights into hiring, skills gaps, and migration trends across the United States, 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 worker in the global workforce. We hope you’ll use insights from our report to better navigate your career - whether you’re unemployed and wondering if hiring is improving in your industry, exploring new skills to learn to make yourself more attractive to employers, or considering a move and curious which cities need your skills most.
Key Insights
- Hiring remains strong, creeps steadily upward through September – Hiring across the U.S. was 19.8% higher this September versus September 2016. Seasonally-adjusted hiring (hiring that excludes seasonal hiring variations – like companies hiring less in December due to the holiday season) was 2.4% higher in September than in August this year. The industries that experienced the biggest year-over-year increase in hiring in September were oil and energy (27.3% higher); manufacturing and industrial (20.7% higher); and aerospace, automotive, and transportation (19.1% higher). A notable exception was Miami, which experienced a 26.7% month-over-month decline in seasonally-adjusted hiring; this decline was likely due to an extended disruption to hiring from the Hurricane Irma evacuation.
- The crunch for construction workers intensifies in the Southeast – In recent weeks, hurricanes have wreaked destruction in Houston, Miami, and Puerto Rico. Rebuilding efforts are underway, but the market for construction workers is tight. Houston, Dallas, and Austin are three of the top ten cities with the largest relative shortage of construction skills nationwide. In contrast, Floridian cities are relatively abundant in construction skills. However, Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami, and West Palm Beach have seen this surplus decrease rapidly over the past year due to rising demand for construction workers. So where will impacted cities find construction workers for their rebuilding efforts? Our data shows that there are large pockets of underutilized construction workers in the Northeast - like Philadelphia, Hartford, and Providence - and the Midwest - like Cleveland, Kansas City, and Milwaukee.
- Growth in Nashville’s tech sector outpaces supply of skilled workers – Nashville has a small but rapidly growing tech sector, which is currently constrained by a scarcity of workers skilled in IT infrastructure, software engineering management, web programming, and artificial intelligence. While the supply for all four of these skills has increased over the past year, there is still a skills shortage for each of them due to rapidly increasing demand. In fact, Nashville has the biggest skills shortage for software engineering management in the United States. Fortunately, Music City is attracting talent in droves, and is currently eighth on our list of cities attracting the most workers. The biggest sources for workers moving to Nashville are Chicago, Knoxville, and New York City.
Hiring remains strong, creeps steadily upward through September
Hiring across the U.S. was 19.8% higher this September versus September 2016.
Seasonally-adjusted hiring (hiring that excludes seasonal hiring variations – like companies hiring less in December due to the holiday season) was 2.4% higher in September than in August this year.
A notable exception was Miami, which experienced a 26.7% month-over-month decline in seasonally-adjusted hiring. This decline was likely due to an extended disruption to hiring attributable to the Hurricane Irma evacuation.
Industry Hiring
The industries that experienced the biggest year-over-year increase in hiring in September are oil and energy (27.3% higher); manufacturing and industrial (20.7% higher); and aerospace, automotive, and transportation (19.1% higher).
The crunch for construction workers intensifies in the Southeast
A skills gap is a mismatch between the skills employers need (demand) and the skills workers have (supply). There is an abundance of skills when supply exceeds demand. There is a scarcity of skills when demand exceeds supply. A city with a scarcity of skills needs more workers with certain skills, while a city with an abundance of skills has too many workers with certain skills. A skills gap is good news for jobseekers when it’s caused by a scarcity of skills, and bad news when it’s caused by an abundance of skills.
In recent weeks, hurricanes have wreaked destruction in Houston, Miami, and Puerto Rico. Rebuilding efforts are underway, but the market for construction workers is tight. Houston, Dallas, and Austin are three of the top ten cities for largest relative shortage of construction skills nationwide. In contrast, Floridian cities are relatively abundant in construction skills. However, Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami, and West Palm Beach have seen this abundance dwindle rapidly over the past year, due to rising demand for construction workers.
So where will impacted cities find construction workers for their rebuilding efforts? Our data shows that there are large pockets of underutilized construction workers in the Northeast - like Philadelphia, Hartford, and Providence - and the Midwest - like Cleveland, Kansas City, Milwaukee.
The cities with the largest skills gaps are San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Austin. Each of these cities has a scarcity-driven skills gap, which means there is a high unfilled demand for workers with certain skillsets such as healthcare management, or education and teaching. To see which other skills are in scarcity, check out the San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Austin City Reports.
The San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, and Washington, D.C. continue to have the greatest scarcity of skills. For details on which skills are in high demand, check out their City Reports.
The cities with the greatest abundance of skills are West Palm Beach, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, and Hartford.
Check out the City 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 most scarce in those cities, and which jobs are open.
Growth in Nashville’s tech sector outpaces supply of skilled workers
Nashville has a small but rapidly growing tech sector, which is currently constrained by a scarcity of workers skilled in IT infrastructure, software engineering management, web programming, and artificial intelligence. While the supply for all four of these skills has increased over the past year, the skills shortage for each of them has nevertheless worsened due to rapidly increasing demand. In fact, Nashville has the biggest skills shortage for software engineering management in the United States.
Fortunately, Music City is attracting talent in droves, and is currently eighth on our list of cities attracting the most workers. The biggest sources for workers moving to Nashville are Chicago, Knoxville, and New York City.
The U.S. cities gaining the most workers overall are Seattle, Denver, and Austin. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Seattle, 67.7 arrived in the last 12 months.
In contrast, Hartford, Norfolk, and Providence are losing the most workers. For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Hartford, 57.8 left the city in the last 12 months.
