Gen Z Leading the Way on Job Changing and Moves Amidst Great Reshuffle

As Chief Economist at LinkedIn, I lead a team of economists and data scientists that unearth the most interesting insights from our over 774M global members. To give you a closer glimpse into our work, every month I’ll share a snapshot of key trends to help shed light on where the world of work is headed. This month, we’re looking at the #GreatReshuffle in the U.S. and taking a closer look at Gen Z talent.

🔎 Zooming In On: Gen Z

To better understand what’s fueling the wave of changes happening across the workforce today, this month we’re zooming in on Gen Z - the fastest growing and most diverse segment of the U.S. labor market. What we see in our data is that, in many ways, Gen Z is leading the charge in driving key shifts across the world of work: 

Gen Z is on the move 

• Gen Z has emerged as the most mobile segment of the workforce. Since the pandemic began, the migration rate for Gen Z is up 23% in the U.S. with Gen Z overtaking Millennials as the most mobile generation.

Gen Z is exploring new roles 

• As the youngest cohort, we would expect Gen Z to change roles at a higher rate than other generations, however, the recent surge in Gen Z job transitions (up 80% from 2020, and 125% from 2019) far exceeds that of Millennials, Boomers, and Gen X.

Gen Z is going hybrid

• While Gen Z has proven 17% more likely to apply to remote jobs than other generations, this younger group whose working lives have been largely defined by the pandemic are also eager to experience in-office collaboration. 
• Gen Z (41%) and Millennials (37%) are the most likely to be back in the workplace full-time after being remote (compared to 24% or Gen X, and 18% of Boomers), according to a 2021 survey conducted by CensusWide on behalf of LinkedIn.

See below for more on key trends we’re keeping a pulse on across all segments of the U.S. workforce.

📊 By The Numbers

Arts, Education, Consumer Goods see September uptick in hiring

• Nationally, across all industries, hiring in the U.S. was 2.2% higher in September 2021 compared to last month. National hiring was 32.3% higher in September 2021 compared to September 2020. Overall, hiring has wavered between slight increases and decreases since early spring, but no clear sign yet of further breakthroughs to surpass pre-pandemic hiring rates. 
• The industries with the most notable hiring shifts month-to-month in September were Arts (6.6% higher); Education (4.8% higher); and Consumer Goods (3.4% higher). Also important to note, with September hiring trends, these industries hit their highest hiring levels since the start of the pandemic. Out of the 24 industries we track, over half (14) saw hiring gains above their pre-COVID levels - a continuation of a trend we saw begin last month. 

 Remote work job postings in U.S. jump up in August  

• About 1 in 8 of U.S. paid job postings offered remote work in August 2021, the greatest month-to-month increase since January 2021.
• The share of remote roles on LinkedIn are attracting over twice their share of job views and almost 2.5x the share of applications when compared to on-site job postings. 

Remote work havens emerge in smaller cities vs. major coastal hubs

• Bend, OR (41.8%), Asheville, NC (38.7%), Wilmington, DE (35.9%), Johnson City, TN (35.2%), Eugene, OR (34.9%), North Port-Sarasota, FL (34.6%) and Pensacola, FL (34.5%) have become remote work havens with the greatest share of job applications by residents to remote jobs in the last 12 months
• College Station, PA (14%), Lafayette, IN (14.6%), Urbana-Champaign, IL (15.4%), NYC (16.4%), SF (16.4%), Seattle, WA (17.9%) and Los Angeles, CA (18.1%) are among the metro areas with the lowest share of remote job applications in the last 12 months. 

 Transportation, Tech, and Healthcare attracting talent amidst increased job switching

• The share of U.S. members changing jobs from June to August 2021 is up +49.8% vs. 2020 and up +27.7% vs. 2019. 
• Transportation & Logistics (+40.8%), Software & IT Services (+39.2%), and Health Care (+36.9%) have seen the greatest increases in workers transitioning into these industries from June to August 2021 compared to the same period in 2019. 

 🗞 LinkedIn Data In The News 

• TIME: Gen Z and Millennials Are Leading a 'Great Reshuffle.' Here's What That Means
• Bloomberg: Cathie Wood’s New York Exit Spotlights Overlooked Florida Region
• Forbes: Unvaccinated Need Not Apply — Job Ads Requiring Covid Jab Skyrocket

Thanks to the team who helps bring this newsletter to life. Wondering how we calculate these numbers every month? See below for the methodologies behind this update. 

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Methodologies: 

Hispanic Heritage Month Survey 

YouGov conducted research on behalf of LinkedIn online on August 18, 2021 among 2,021 Latino professionals, ages 18-55+ in the U.S.

Remote Work

A “remote job” is defined as one where either the job poster explicitly labeled it as “remote” or if the job contained keywords like “work from home” in the listing. The share of remote jobs is calculated in proportion to all paid job postings. LinkedIn analyzed over 1.5 million paid remote job postings in the United States posted since January 2020.

LinkedIn Hiring Rate 

The LinkedIn Hiring Rate (LHR) is the number of LinkedIn members who added a new employer to their profile in the same month the new job began, divided by the total number of LinkedIn members in that country.  By only analyzing the timeliest data, we can make month-to-month comparisons and account for any potential lags in members updating their profiles. This number is indexed to the average month in 2016; for example, an index of 1.05 indicates a hiring rate that is 5% higher than the average month in 2016.

Migration 

A migration instance is defined as a member changing their location on their LinkedIn profile. This analysis calculates the inflow-outflow ratio (number of inflows to a market area for every outflow) for U.S. metro areas that have at least 500 inflows and 500 outflows every month

Job Transitions

Job transitions are calculated from updates to LinkedIn profiles when a new job at a different company is created after a previous job has ended. This is divided by LinkedIn membership to account for membership growth. This share is compared to the equivalent time in 2019, before COVID, to benchmark the job transition rate against a more “typical” economic year. Student jobs, side jobs, and internships are not included. Jobs must be created on LinkedIn in the same month of the job start date to account for lag in how members update their profile.