LinkedIn Workforce Report | Houston | February 2017

Over 133 million workers in the U.S. have LinkedIn profiles; thousands of companies in the U.S. use LinkedIn to recruit; millions of 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. That gives us unique and valuable insight into U.S. workforce trends.

The LinkedIn Workforce Report is a monthly report on employment trends in the U.S. workforce. It’s divided into two sections: a U.S. section that provides insights into hiring, skills gaps, and migration trends across the country, and a City section that provides insights into localized employment trends in 10 of the largest U.S. cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, 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.

Hiring

Good news for jobseekers: Hiring was 21.8% higher in January 2017 than January 2016, and seasonally-adjusted hiring (hiring that excludes seasonal hiring variations - like companies hiring less in December due to the holiday season) was 17.7% higher in January 2017 than December 2016. If your New Year’s resolution is finding a new job, check out LinkedIn Jobs because new jobs are opening up in Houston!

Skills Gap

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.

Houston’s skills gap is driven by an abundance of workers with certain skills. What’s interesting is that the city’s skills gap used to be driven by a scarcity of workers with certain skills. That changed though in 2014 when the price of oil declined, which caused a decrease in hiring in the oil and energy industry.

As you can see, Houston has an abundance of oil and energy skills - like drill and well management, subsea engineering and offshore operations, and geology. If you have these skills, consider learning the skills in scarcity below to better stand out from the pack.

Here are the skills Houston has in scarcity.

If you live in Houston and don’t have these skills, check out the LinkedIn Learning courses below - they’ll teach you related skills so you’ll be more attractive to employers in the city.

• Graphic Design
• Marketing Event Management
• Non-Profit, Fundraising, and Grant Making
• Building Construction
• Healthcare Management
• Employee Training and Development
• Real Estate and Home Buying
• Sales
• Gardening and Landscaping

Migration

Houston gained the most workers in the last 12 months from Bryan and College Station, New York City, and Baton Rouge. So for every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Houston, 3.2 workers moved to the city in the last year from Bryan and College Station.

Dallas, Austin, and San Francisco gained the most workers from Houston in the last 12 months. So for every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Houston, 4.1 workers moved to Dallas in the last year.