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Job Growth Remains High in 2017: LinkedIn Workforce Report March 2017

If you’re looking for a new job, 2017 may be your best year yet. Hiring across the U.S. was 1.4% higher in February compared to February 2016. It’s the strongest consecutive months of hiring activity since August and September 2015. That’s according to our new LinkedIn Workforce Report - a report we publish monthly that can help you navigate your career. It sheds light on hiring trends, the skills companies need most, and where workers are moving to and from. It’s unclear if this trend is sustainable, or merely a temporary blip on the radar, but we’re keeping an eye on it. If you’re looking for a new gig, check out LinkedIn Jobs.

Here are a few highlights from this month’s report:

Hiring continues to increase; especially in the oil and energy and manufacturing and industrial industries.

Seasonally-adjusted hiring (hiring that excludes seasonal hiring variations - like companies hiring less in December due to the holiday season) in the oil and energy industry has risen by a whopping 51% since June 2016, which was the low point of the industry’s recession. And seasonally-adjusted hiring in the manufacturing and industrial industry has risen 9% since October 2016. And February’s hiring rate was the strongest it has been since August 2016.

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Big cities need more teachers, doctors, and nurses.

We track skills gaps (a mismatch between the skills employers need - demand - and the skills workers have - supply) in 10 of the biggest U.S. cities. San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Houston have the biggest skills gaps, which are largely due to a scarcity of workers with service-industry skills. In February we took a closer look and discovered that the most scarce service-industry skills are in healthcare management and education and teaching. Workers with healthcare management skills – like primary care, medical billing, and health education – are in scarcity in nine of the cities. And workers with education and teaching skills – like lesson planning, lecturing, and e-learning – are in scarcity in six of the cities. If you have these skills, and are looking for a new gig, check out our City Reports for Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. to see which cities need you most.

Those are a few of the highlights from this month’s LinkedIn Workforce Report. To see all the insights, check out the full report.