86,000 Reasons Why Residents of Greater Manchester Need to be on LinkedIn

I am passionate about helping professionals of all ages develop the skills they need to get hired and be successful. It’s why I joined LinkedIn -- our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. It’s also why we are excited about the work we’re doing with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority here in the UK; a follow up to the Economic Graph research we did in New York.

Greater Manchester has a diverse economy with more than 1.39 million professionals and more than 97,000 businesses. But the Councils recognise that the skills required to get jobs today differ from the skills required 10 years ago. And they’ll surely differ from the skills required 10 years from now, so Greater Manchester must constantly advance its workforce skills to strengthen and grow its economy. That’s where LinkedIn comes in.

The initial part of the project begins today and will see LinkedIn land in the streets of Manchester and encourage professionals in the region to update their LinkedIn profile with their latest professional information including their skills, education, and work experience or create a profile if they don’t already have one.

Last month alone recruiters on LinkedIn performed more than 86,000 searches for candidates in Greater Manchester. A profile picture, or skills listed, can dramatically increase chances of people, including potential employers, seeing your profile. So with so many opportunities in the city already, and many more to come in the next 10 years, we’re asking Greater Manchester residents a simple question over the next two weeks – why keep a low profile?

Once professionals have updated their profiles or created new profiles, we’ll be shifting attention to the use of the Economic Graph -- a digital map of the economy. We’ll identify existing skills in the workforce, the skills required to get hired, the gap between the two, and the skills and jobs that are growing in-demand. These insights will be used by Greater Manchester to re-shape education and training to help professionals in the region develop the skills required to get the jobs of today, and tomorrow.

Ultimately, the more information Greater Manchester professionals add to their profiles, the more insights we’ll be able to provide to the City Councils, and the the more intelligent decisions they’ll be able to make. So please update your profile, or create one, today!

To learn more about #ProjectManchester, please visit www.manchester.LinkedIn.com.