Talent Market Drivers Since the Start of COVID
LinkedIn data on what talent wants, what employers need, and what we're learning in the Great Reshuffle.
The global talent market has never changed this much, this quickly. Call it the Great Reshuffle: a time when everyone is rethinking everything.
As employees reconsider where they work and why, employers are recalibrating their talent needs and culture. It’s a learning process for all involved. This report will shed light on how the talent market has changed since COVID began.
What talent wants from employers
Candidates are rethinking how they choose an employer.
The single biggest change in candidate priorities is the rapidly growing importance of flexible work arrangements, which spiked just as many companies were preparing to return to the office.
An inclusive workplace for people of diverse backgrounds also grew more important, rising sharply after the murder of George Floyd and resulting international Black Lives Matter protest movement.
Work-life balance was already the overall #1 priority for candidates at the beginning of the pandemic, and it’s only grown more important as remote work becomes more common.
Companies are falling short where it matters the most.
Burnout signals have spiked by 9% in recent months, while employee happiness fell by 3%, according to global Glint data.
That may be because companies aren’t delivering what talent wants. While work-life balance and compensation are the two most important priorities for candidates, employee surveys reveal that companies score poorly on those priorities relative to other factors measured.
Companies are doing well when it comes to flexibility — but for all the benefits of remote work, there’s a dark side: employees are more likely to struggle with work-life balance.
Culture changes need to follow policy changes so that employees don't feel burned out from a never-ending digital workday. When flexibility isn’t an option (e.g., for in-person service jobs), employers should consider increasing compensation as a key lever to bring in more talent.
"Companies need to recognize that the power dynamic has changed — workers are going to demand more from them on multiple fronts. Candidates are being much more selective about where they work, and workers are more vocal about what they want."
Karin Kimbrough
LinkedIn Chief Economist
What employers need from talent
Employer demand is rising for both digital and in-person roles.
Jobs with the fastest-growing demand
Q2 2021 vs. Q2 2020
Jobs with the fastest-growing demand
Q2 2021 vs. Q2 2020
1. Application Developer +13x
2. Retail Specialist +12x
3. Security Officer +7x
4. Product Designer +7x
5. Recruiter +7x
6. Automotive Tech +5x
7. Pharmacy Tech +5x
8. Javascript Developer +5x
9. Sales Dev Rep +5x
10. Ruby on Rails Developer +4x
Most in-demand jobs in Q2 2021
April 1 - June 30, 2021
1. Software Engineer
2. Salesperson
3. Registered Nurse
4. Project Manager
5. Javascript Developer
6. Store Associate
7. Application Developer
8. DevOps Engineer
9. Full Stack Engineer
10. Driver
Click through the tabs below to explore hiring demand trends.
Demand for talent is up across the board
As the skyrocketing demand for recruiters indicates, companies are hiring again at a considerably faster clip.
With everyone looking for talent at the same time, you can expect a more competitive environment for virtually any role — but especially for roles related to digital transformation and in-person service.
More businesses need help going digital.
Digital transformation was a widely predicted trend at the onset of pandemic lockdowns. Demand for application developers was relatively stable at the start of the pandemic, when demand for most jobs was plummeting.
Over the last two quarters, however, demand for this digital talent sharply increased.
It’s harder to hire for in-person service roles.
Perhaps more surprising is just how great the demand is for frontline workers — those who can only do their jobs in-person and indoors, like retail workers or security officers.
This may reflect the fact that it’s getting more difficult to hire for these in-person jobs — leading some employers to improve their compensation and benefits.
“There’s been this sudden influx of available jobs, but the number of job seekers hasn’t caught up. It's imperative for recruiters to look beyond pre-pandemic norms and traditional career paths. So much of that is being rewritten right now.”
Karin Kimbrough
LinkedIn Chief Economist
Top skills being learned by talent
People are learning skills to meet market demands.
Click the tabs below to explore how these skills connect to market demands.
Most popular courses on LinkedIn Learning
July 2020 - June 2021
1. Unconscious Bias
2. Strategic Thinking
3. Excel Essential Training
4. Communicating with Confidence
5. Speaking Confidently and Effectively
6. Confronting Bias: Thriving Across Our Differences
7. Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging
8. Learning Excel 2019
9. Critical Thinking
10. Time Management Fundamentals
DE&I Skills
The single most popular course over the last year was Unconscious Bias, taught by Stacey Gordon. It was one of many popular courses that aim to promote a workplace culture of diversity and inclusion — an increasingly important factor for candidates.
The fact that over 600,000 learners have watched this course signals that people are investing time and taking action to foster belonging.
Communication skills
Communication skills are being developed across many of the top courses. Communicating effectively is particularly important for in-demand jobs in customer service and sales (salesperson is the #2 most in-demand job).
Essential data skills
Hard data skills also cropped up often in the most popular courses, from mastering Microsoft Excel to learning SQL to deal with databases.
Since the pandemic only accelerated trends of digital transformation, businesses need talent to translate the ever-growing stores of raw data into actionable insights.
Critical thinking skills
Learners are also developing strategic soft skills like critical thinking, which should prove particularly valuable amid the Great Reshuffle.
As companies reconsider business models, explore new ways of working, and adapt to unpredictable market changes, it’ll be essential to break out of old ways of thinking.
“You see that so many of these popular courses help people build durable skills — skills that will matter no matter what role they’re in, no matter what stage of their career. And that’s incredibly valuable.”
Karin Kimbrough
LinkedIn Chief Economist
Looking forward to a post-pandemic future
The Great Reshuffle is here: employees are rethinking their priorities, companies are reconsidering their needs, and everyone is learning to “build the plane as we fly it.” We’re all adapting to constant change, making decisions amid uncertainty, and exploring new opportunities.
And although the talent market always ebbs and flows, many of the changes we’re seeing today are unlikely to be undone. Hybrid work is here to stay, digital transformation is only accelerating, and people are building durable new skills for the future.
We’re just beginning to understand the full impact of the Great Reshuffle. But once the dust finally settles and the pandemic is far behind us, those companies who rose to meet this moment will reap the rewards in the talent market.
Explore the regional Talent Market Drivers reports.
See how COVID has shifted the talent landscape around the world.
Methodology
Behavioral insights for this report were generated from the billions of data points created by hundreds of millions of members in over 200 countries on LinkedIn today. For the purpose of this data analysis, we consider April 1, 2020 as the starting date for COVID, as it marks the first full month after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 13, 2020.
Candidate priorities are based on LinkedIn's Talent Drivers survey of global members, also called the Employer Value Proposition survey, which polls tens of thousands of members each month. LinkedIn members were asked to select the five most important factors when considering a job opportunity from a list of 15 employer value propositions. The “Most Important Priorities for Candidates Overall” reflects the most popular priorities as of June 2021, while the “Fastest-Growing Priorities Since COVID” looks at the relative change of priorities from April 2020 to June 2021. The “Top Priorities When Considering a New Company” reflect the most popular priorities in LinkedIn's Talent Drivers Survey from July 2020 to June 2021. The insights on company performance according to employees were derived from millions of Glint survey responses from more than 600 organizations. Burnout signals and happiness rates are similarly based on Glint data; see the September 2021 Employee Well-Being report for more details.
The Most In-Demand Jobs are those with the highest number of job posts, based on global LinkedIn data. The jobs with the fastest-growing demand are those with the biggest percentage growth in the number of job posts, from the second quarter of 2020 (April 1 - June 30) to the second quarter of 2021.
The Most Popular Courses list is based on global data from the LinkedIn Learning platform from July 1, 2020 through June 30 2021. Top courses are based on the number of unique learners.