Our 2021 Grad’s Guide to Getting Hired

If you’re a new graduate starting your job search, there’s good news about the job market: we’re on the road to economic recovery from COVID-19 and the future looks bright. In fact, there are millions of open entry-level jobs in the U.S listed on LinkedIn right now. 

To help you take the next step toward one of those opportunities, we’re unveiling our 2021 LinkedIn Grad’s Guide to Getting Hired. The guide features workforce trends and insights, like which jobs and skills are most in demand right now, to help set you up for success as you start your career journey. Here are the highlights.

The rate of hiring is returning to normal for US graduates

Although the 2020 graduating class struggled for a few months last summer, we saw the hiring rate for fresh college grads return to pre-covid hiring levels by October of 2020.

As a result, we are cautiously optimistic for the 2021 graduating class. The rate of hiring returning to pre-COVID times suggests that 2021 graduates are likely heading into a more stable and healthy job market. 

What are the opportunities?

Looking at entry-level job openings in the US, here are the top 10 industries with the most job openings.

1. Transportation & Logistics
   Top Jobs in this Industry: Driver, Mover, Customer Service Specialist

2. Healthcare
   Top Jobs in this Industry: Licensed Practical Nurse, Speech Language Pathologist, Home Health Aide

3. Software & IT Services
   Top Jobs in this Industry: Software Engineer, Developer, Project Manager, Data Engineer

4. Retail
   Top Jobs in this Industry: Salesperson, Cashier, Shop Manager

5. Consumer Goods
   Top Jobs in this Industry: Cook, Salesperson, Real Estate Specialist

6. Recreation & Travel
   Top Jobs in this Industry: Housekeeper, Baker, Food Service Worker

7. Manufacturing
   Top Jobs in this Industry: Automotive Technician, Manufacturing Engineer, Software Engineer

8. Finance
   Top Jobs in this Industry: Software Engineer, Insurance Agent, Banker

9. Corporate Services
   Top Jobs in this Industry: Software Engineer, Project Manager, Customer Service Specialist

10. Construction
    Top Jobs in this Industry: Carpenter, Project Manager, Electrician 

These are the top 10 most in demand entry level jobs

1. Software Engineering Specialist (Salary range for all levels: 103K - 211K)
   Top Skills for this Role: JavaScript, React.js, Node.js
   Companies Hiring: JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lockheed Martin, Eaton

2. Online Specialist: (Salary range for all levels: 29K - 61K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Social Media, Online Marketing, Customer Service
   Companies Hiring: Walmart, Talent Hack, Tutor with Preply

3. Sterilization Technician (Salary range for all levels: 35K - 84K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Sterilization, Healthcare, Decontamination
   Companies Hiring: West Virginia University Medicine, St. David's North Austin Medical Center, Aureus Medical Group

4. Wellness Specialist (Salary range for all levels: 33K - 77K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Wellness, Wellness Coaching, Fitness, Public Speaking
   Companies Hiring: Walmart, Anthem, WW (formerly Weight Watchers)

5. Medical Technologist (Salary range for all levels: 48K - 76K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Hematology, Laboratory Medicine, Medical Technology
   Companies Hiring: Doctors Hospital of Augusta, Medical City Arlington, Methodist Hospital Northeast

6. Transaction Services Specialist (Salary range for all levels: 41K - 93K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Due Diligence, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Financial Analysis
   Companies Hiring: JPMorgan Chase & Co., eXp World Holdings, Infosys

7. Technical Support Manager (Salary range for all levels: 46K - 107K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Troubleshooting, Team Building, Customer Service
   Companies Hiring: Shippo, Garmin, ECI Software Solutions 

8. Virtual Assistant (Salary range for all levels: 30K - 60K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Data Entry, Administrative Assistance, Social Media Marketing
   Companies Hiring: New Heights Solutions, Dynasty Financial Builders LLC

9. Data Entry Operator (Salary range for all levels: 23K - 41K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Data Entry, Typing, Online Data Entry, Microsoft Office
   Companies Hiring: Reesby, SMI - Strategic Marketplace Initiative, Akima

10. Technical Sales Representative (Salary range for all levels: 37K - 115K)
    Top Skills for this Role: Account Management, Sales Management, Customer Service
    Companies Hiring: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Best Buy, GHA Technologies, Inc

More entry-level jobs are going remote 

These are the top ten remote jobs hiring entry level talent that we’ve seen grow the most over the last year.

1. Customer Support Specialist (Salary range for all levels: 34K - 64K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Customer Support, Data Entry, Technical Support

2. Office Associate (Salary range for all levels: 30K - 62K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Public Speaking, Event Planning, Community Outreach

3. Business Development Representative (Salary range for all levels: 34K - 71K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Salesforce.com, Cold Calling, Business Development

4. Product Manager (Salary range for all levels: 67K - 158K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Agile Methodologies, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Product Strategy

5. Real Estate Agent (Salary range for all levels: 28K - 116K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Working with First-Time Home Buyers, Residential Real Estate, Real Estate, Investment Properties

6. Data Analyst (Salary range for all levels: 34K - 82K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Tableau, Data Analysis, SQL

7. Full Stack Engineer (Salary range for all levels: 50K - 125K)
   Top Skills for this Role: React.js, Node.js, JavaScript

8. Salesperson (Salary range for all levels: 31K - 75K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Sales, Customer Service, Time Management

9. Security Engineer (Salary range for all levels: 64K - 151K)
   Top Skills for this Role: Information Security, Cybersecurity, Network Security

10. Account Manager (Salary range for all levels: 39K - 94K)
    Top Skills for this Role: Account Management, Sales, Team Building

Regions with the highest number of entry level jobs

If the pandemic taught us one thing it was that the workforce is resilient and where people do their day to day jobs has grown in exponential ways. If you’re someone who isn’t looking for the big city vibe to start your career, here are the fastest growing regions with entry level job postings.

Translating your skills to the workforce

We analyzed millions of job postings across industries to pinpoint the 5 most in-demand skills for new grads or anyone just starting their career. Make sure to list these skills on your LinkedIn Profile if you have them or take the free LinkedIn Learning courses linked below to learn something new. Here are the top five skills most highly in demand by employers.

1. Analytical Skills
   Learning Data Analytics
   Data Fluency: Exploring and Describing Data
   Learning Data Visualization

2. Project Management
   Project Management Foundations
   Project Management Foundations: Ethics
   Project Management Foundations: Requirements

3. Customer Service
   Customer Service Foundations
   Customer Service: Problem Solving and Troubleshooting
   Building Rapport with Customers

4. Marketing
   Online Marketing Foundations
   Content Marketing Foundations
   Email and Newsletter Marketing Foundations

5. Time Management
   Time Management: Working from Home
   Working and Collaborating Online
   Remote Work Foundations

Networking for new graduates has never been more important

With federal, state and local health laws scuttling in-person professional events and networking opportunities, we saw the 2020 graduating class turn to virtual networking on LinkedIn. We saw an uptick of 18% in the rate at which LinkedIn connections were formed by the 2020 graduating class relative to the class of 2019. 

Of positive note were US graduates who finished their Associates Degree in 2020. More specifically, the rate at which these members formed more connections on LinkedIn was 30% higher than their 2019 counterparts. In comparison, the increase for Bachelor’s students was 17%.

For grads looking for more resources on how to network and find your next job visit, opportunity.linkedin.com.

Methodology:

LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team analyzed millions of entry-level job postings to identify the most common and fastest growing positions listed on the platform. The team examined jobs posted on LinkedIn between January 1 and March 31 of 2019, 2020 and 2021. Job postings are categorized as entry-level by job posters when they submit openings on LinkedIn. LinkedIn identified recent graduates based on Bachelor’s and Associate’s degree completion dates listed in members’ profiles. For the in-demand skills section, the Economic Graph team examined skills requirements in full time entry-level job postings between January 1 and March 31 of 2019, 2020 and 2021, identifying the most frequently cited required skills in the widest array of industries. LinkedIn salary data comes from anonymous member-submitted salary information as well as compensation data from other proprietary sources.

The Network Formation Rate is the number of LinkedIn connections formed by a cohort of students in the 6 months leading up to, and after graduation, divided by the number of students in that cohort. We control for things like survivorship bias by looking only at members who got hired within the 6 months of graduating. This helps us understand how quickly various groups of members are forming connections, and compare this across groups.