Artisan Talent

In the coming months, we will see an influx of new and returning workers join the labor force, especially with graduation season upon us. While stabilization in the pace of hiring could not come at a better time for new graduates, it will not negate the cumulative impact of the hiring slowdown over the last two years. Competition for jobs will be tougher this year, especially as professionals start to eye their next move and for new graduates. For example, from November 2023 through March 2024 we’ve seen an 14% increase in the number of job applications being submitted per applicant on LinkedIn. We look at the state of hiring in this month's US Workforce Report. 1. Overall, hiring slowed by 0.2% from March to April and 9.5% compared to April 2023 (the smallest year-over-year decline seen since August 2022), however the pace of hiring has only slowed by 1% since January. The majority of the slowdown still looks to be behind us, and stabilization in the pace of hiring is coming right in time for graduation season. However, there are still no signs of a mass pick up and hiring remains depressed compared to the last few years. Opportunities differ greatly from one industry to the next. 2. April saw a mix of hiring pickups and slowdowns across industries. April’s hiring gains included Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage which posted strong net employment gains in April’s jobs report. Overall, 7 out of the 20 sectors saw hiring accelerated from March to April. Technology, Information, and Media continues to lead hiring stabilization, changing little from March to April (+0.3%) and only down -2.3% year-over-year (second only to Consumer Services). While the overall hiring rate has slowed 7.3% since July 2023, the hiring rate for Technology, Information, and Media has accelerated 7.2% within that same timeframe. 4. Hiring increased in 6 of the 20 metro areas we track in April. While hiring remains down in all metros we track compared to one year prior, new and old tech hubs Austin (-5.1%) and the San Francisco Bay Area (-6.3%) continued to put in the strongest year-over-year hiring performances. 5. Tapering off of the hiring slowdown has not translated into improved workforce confidence. In fact, we have seen LinkedIn member confidence in finding and holding a job recently dip to some of its lowest levels over the past few years based on LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index. Without any signs of reacceleration on a broader scale, the cumulative effect of the hiring slowdown since Spring 2022 looks to now be meaningfully weighing down workforce confidence. For more insights, check our May Workforce Report coming out this week as well as our monthly newsletter - State of the Labor Market - from LinkedIn's Economic Graph. Many thanks to all the folks who make this possible Danielle K., Weesie Thelen, Shadin Al-Dossari, Anne Trapasso, Amie Wong, and Allie Lewis! #linkedin #hiring #egdata