A new way to represent career breaks on LinkedIn

Today, we’re introducing a new way to represent a career break in the Experience section of the LinkedIn Profile, with 13 options including caregiving, and health and well-being. By adding a career break to your Profile, you can stand out to hirers by highlighting how these life experiences can apply to prospective jobs: 51% of hirers say they are more likely to contact a candidate that provides context about their career break. 

For more information on what we’re launching, please see below:

The new career breaks feature is rolling out to our members globally and will be available to everyone in the coming weeks.

Free resources for those looking to re-enter the workforce

To help people take the next step in their career after a career break, we’re also offering free LinkedIn Learning courses throughout March: 

Understanding sentiment around career breaks

To understand how people and hirers perceive career breaks, we conducted a global survey which uncovered the below key insights. 

Career breaks are common, especially for women

  • The majority of women (64%) have experienced a career break at some point in their career with top reasons including parental leave (22%), medical leave (17%) and mental health reasons (14%). 
  • In January 2022 on LinkedIn, 70% of career break-related searches and 67% of career break-related posts globally came from female members. 
  • Women are taking longer to re-enter the workforce. In the US, there was a 39% increase in the length of time women in the US took a career break. 

Many who took a career break were parents who were faced with having to choose between work and family 

  • Of women who noted their last career break was due to parental leave: 48% say they felt they have had to choose between prioritizing their career over their kids and 59% worry they don’t spend enough time with their children because of their career.
  • 41% of women say they found it difficult to tell their employer they were taking a career break to have children and 60% of women say they were nervous about returning to work after taking a career break to have children.

Career breaks can be valuable in assessing priorities in work and life

  • 53% of people say they are better at their job after having a career break. And 51% of hiring managers believe people who take career breaks can restart their careers at any time. 
  • 69% of people say taking a career break helped them to gain perspective and figure out what they really want from life and 68% say taking a break positively impacted their wellbeing.

People want a better way to share more about their career break

  • 64% of people wish there was a way to positively represent career breaks to hirers and 52% of hiring managers believe candidates should proactively bring up their career break during the interview and highlight what they learned during that time. 
  • 48% of hirers think the biggest mistake candidates make when discussing their career breaks is undervaluing themselves in terms of compensation or seniority of role.
  • When it comes to applying lessons learned from a career break at work, 74% of people who have taken a career break believe employers valued the skills they gained. And hiring managers agree, 50% of hiring managers believe people returning from a career break have often gained valuable soft skills and 46% believe candidates undersell them.