Early career professionals drawn to more stable industries amidst global hiring slowdown and barriers to break into green jobs

By Kory Kantenga , Head of Economics, Americas, at LinkedIn

In this edition of the State of the Labor Market, we first zoom out to examine global hiring trends across industries and job functions. Using the median LinkedIn Hiring Rate across various countries, we look at which industries have shown hiring strength and weakness relative to the pace of hiring before the pandemic turned the labor market and the world on its head. As we’re seeing a divergence in hiring patterns across industries - this trend is having major implications for early career professionals. As discussed in the recently released 2024 Guide to Kickstarting Your Career , with popular, high-paying roles like consulting harder to land, these younger professionals are increasingly seeking opportunities in industries that are more robust and less responsive to economic conditions (i.e., less cyclical) like Education and Government Administration. We close this edition by sharing insights around the new job opportunities for younger workers that could exist in the ongoing need to address the climate crisis. However, new data from LinkedIn shows that these workers are not yet well equipped to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

Global hiring favors healthcare

While hiring across the global economy has slowed since 2022, the experience across industries and job functions has been far from uniform. Relative to six years ago – a pre-pandemic baseline – the pace of global hiring has remained strong in Hospitals and Healthcare as well as less cyclical industries (Utilities, Education, Consumer Services, Government Administration), outpacing the rate of hiring in 2018 according to the LinkedIn Hiring Rate. Meanwhile, the pace of hiring has weakened significantly across the globe in industries like Technology, Information, and Media; Professional Services; and Manufacturing.

Historically, industries like Professional Services, Manufacturing, and Construction react more strongly to economic upturns and downturns (i.e., more cyclical). Thus, we would expect to see hiring slow in these industries due to inflationary pressure and higher interest rates across major economies. However, after a correction in 2022, the pace of hiring in Construction began to level out in early 2023 with modest increases at times compared to the prior year. In contrast, Technology, Information, and Media (once thought relatively less sensitive to business cycles) also had a correction in hiring but much sharper and only began to level out globally in late 2023. These contrasting trends suggest that industry experiences have varied widely and, in some cases, unexpectedly relative to their modern historical behavior.

Similar to industry trends, healthcare service roles exhibit the most robust hiring relative to their 2018 pace, followed by protective services, social services and education. Job functions that dominate Technology, Information, and Media and Professional Services like engineering and consulting have seen the biggest hiring downturn relative to their 2018 pace. As it stands in May 2024, there appears to be a cluster of job functions with hiring hovering below their 2018 pace (e.g., Administrative, Operations, Legal) and another cluster (concentrated in technology and professional services) with hiring much slower (down over 20%).

Early career professionals look to less cyclical industries for opportunities

With hiring slower in popular, high-pay industries like Technology, we see early career professionals finding roles increasingly in industries with less responsiveness to broader economic conditions. Education and Government Administration top the list of fastest growing industries for recent US bachelor’s degree recipients, meaning we have seen the largest increases in the share of hiring among BA graduates in these two industries. Across job functions, behavioral health technician and medical assistant have seen the largest increase in the share of hiring among US BA graduates. As demand for health services rises with countries with aging populations, healthcare roles may take on more appeal for early career professionals as employers may need to raise wages to attract more workers.

In addition to looking at less cyclical industries, we see early career professionals increasingly taking roles in lower cost cities. In the US, mid-sized, Sunbelt cities in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia all increased their share of new-grad hires with Tucson topping the list. While the Sunbelt remains a popular destination, rising housing prices in larger metros like Miami and Austin have worked to the favor of mid-sized cities like Tallahassee and Chattanooga.

Overall, some early career professionals have to consider roles in industries with more robust hiring trends that they may not have considered before. With hiring slower across the globe, competition for jobs has increased and likely disproportionately hit early career professionals as of late. According to the New York Federal Reserve, both unemployment and underemployment in the US have risen in recent months for recent graduates (aged 22 to 27) despite no overall changes for all college graduates (aged 22 and older). In addition, LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index continues to track at low levels, reaching a Spring 2020 low point for the US. Workforce confidence is likely weighed down by the cumulative impact of the hiring slowdown (which has recently stabilized) and higher prices with no major turnaround expected in 2024.

One area of respite remains: Utilities. Compared to May 2018, only Hospitals and Healthcare has seen hiring accelerate more than Utilities. While Utilities remains very small compared to healthcare, education and government, its resilience and key role in addressing climate change make it an industry worth considering. The advancement of renewable energy remains a boon for Utilities with solar set to account for over 70% of the US’ increase in electricity generation, according to the US Energy Information Administration. However, early career professionals do not yet appear poised to take advantage of these opportunities.

Younger professionals struggling to break into “green jobs”

According to new data from LinkedIn, only 1 in 20 Gen Z workers globally report having the skills required to address the climate crisis compared to 1 in 8 workers in the overall workforce. Based on survey evidence, this gap in skills does not reflect lack of interest as more than half (61%) of these workers report wanting to work in a green job in the next five years. However, several barriers persist, including (1) lack of available job opportunities (63%), (2) lack of experience (45%), and (3) lack of green skills (40%). Knowledge around how to break into the green jobs market also appears to be a barrier with only 1 in 5 Gen Z workers reporting strong awareness of career paths to break into the market. Given the ongoing and mounting nature of the climate crisis, there is unlikely to be a shortage of opportunities in this space in the coming years. Whether we will have a global workforce that meets these needs remains an open question.

For more insights, check out our latest US Workforce report and learn more about the LinkedIn Hiring Rate here .