July LinkedIn Workforce Report: Hiring is strongest it has been since summer 2015

U.S. employers continued to add more workers to their payroll in June. In fact, May and June were the strongest months for hiring since summer 2015, according to the July LinkedIn Workforce Report.  

Hiring across the U.S. was 12.1 percent higher in June than the same time last year. The industries that experienced the biggest year-over-year increase in hiring in June were oil and energy (39.6 percent higher), manufacturing and industrial (20.3 percent higher), and aerospace, automotive, and transportation (16.3 percent higher). Oil and energy is up due to the rebound in oil prices, and hiring in the other industries is likely due to to increased optimism over the Trump Administration’s promises to lower taxes and reduce regulations.

Additionally, while there's been a lot of talk recently about the record number of retail store closures this year, and about 90,000 workers in the industry losing their jobs, we discovered that there's a high scarcity of workers with retail store operations and management skills in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York City, Austin, and Denver. These skills range from cashiering and retail sales, to visual merchandising, inventory management, and planograms, to new store development.

Brick and mortar retailers may do better in large cities than small cities because they have residents with higher disposable incomes and more luxury and brand name stores that invest in creating unique customer experiences that keep people coming back. And these cities may need more workers with retail skills because they have higher costs of living, which may have caused service-industry workers (which retail workers are part of) to move to more affordable cities and suburbs.

The LinkedIn Workforce Report helps workers better navigate their careers by highlighting workforce trends in the U.S. and across 20 cities. Insights include whether hiring is up, down, or flat, which skills cities need most, and where workers are moving to and from.

Click here to read more of our July LinkedIn Workforce Report.