Workforce trends to watch: AI is rising; hybrid and hiring are choppy

What will the second half of 2023 be like, in terms of workforce trends that affect U.S. employers’ talent strategies and our own careers??

Let’s dig into the latest data from two key teams within LinkedIn. Their findings touch on everything from industry-based hiring trends – to the swirl of excitement about work’s new destiny as artificial-intelligence (AI) breakthroughs take hold.?

Specifically, here are five bold-faced areas to watch.

AI’s breakthrough moment:? During the March-to-June period, only 15% of U.S. professionals said they currently are using AI in their jobs, according to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence survey. But 40% of people surveyed believe that gaining AI skills will help advance their careers.

Look for a big cohort of AI learners to emerge – at all levels ranging from degree-seeking programs to short bursts of online tutorials. Workforce Confidence surveys have found that 27% of U.S. professionals say they are interested in learning AI skills in the next year.?

Interest in learning AI is keenest among millennials (ages 26 to 41), but even baby boomers (ages 59 to 77) rate AI expertise as the tech skill they are most eager to master.?

Awareness of AI’s potential varies widely by industry. In the forefront are workers in tech, real estate, professional services and financial service, who are most likely to value AI skills as career enhancers. By contrast, fields such as wholesale, construction, oil, gas, mining and healthcare services put lower values on AI skills – for now at least.?

How far are we on the AI adoption curve? A simple indicator suggests there’s lots of room to grow: some 33% of U.S. professionals say they haven’t yet heard of ChatGPT, a widely available AI tool.?

Remote jobs keep getting scarcer: Back in May 2022, 18.4% of U.S. paid job listings on LinkedIn offered remote work. But that percentage has been declining ever since, without showing signs yet of bottoming out. This past May, only 10.4% of U.S. paid job postings on LinkedIn offered remote work.

Who’s giving up on remote work? Industries with the largest decline in paid remote postings include technology information and media (20.4% in May 2023 versus 42.3% in May 2022), along with government administration (8.2%, down from 22.6%) and education (15.1%, down from 28.1%).

That’s frustrating news for job candidates, who remain extremely eager to land remote work. In May 2023, paid remote jobs attracted 47.1% of all applications on LinkedIn – even though opportunities weren’t nearly that abundant.?

Even hybrid jobs may have peaked: Lots of employees like the idea of coming into the office a couple days a week, while working at home on occasion, too. But employers’ willingness to offer such hybrid arrangements has dwindled the past few months. In May 2023, 13.4% of U.S. paid job listings on LinkedIn offered hybrid work, down from a peak of 15.1% in February 2023.

If you’re looking for hybrid opportunities, the May 2023 data shows that professional services (30.4% of all listings) and financial services (23%) may be your best prospects.

Job-hopping – at least for the moment – is on the wane. Should I stay or should I go? Attitudes keep switching among U.S. professionals, going back to the cautious attitudes of late 2020. Once the COVID pandemic let up, the so-called Great Reshuffle took hold in 2021-22.?

Now it looks as if we’ve entered the era of “The Big Stay.” Job transitions in May 2023, as tracked by LinkedIn members’ activity, were down 34.3% from a year earlier. A growth slowdown in the tech sector has reduced pivots into tech, and professionals in general appear to be valuing job security more highly than career flexibility.?

In industries such as hospitals and healthcare, government administration and construction, hiring rates have climbed about 3% to 7% as of May 2023, when compared against their November 2022 levels. But in that same six-month period, hiring has slumped more than 10% in sectors such as wholesale, technology, information and media, and administrative and support services.

Looking for an enduring edge? Bank on fresh skills: LinkedIn data shows that the skill sets needed across all jobs have changed about 25% since 2015. By 2027, that number is expected to double. And a LinkedIn survey of recruiters finds that 75% of them predict that skills-first hiring will be a priority for their organization in the next 18 months.?

Methodology

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 3,000 to 5,000 U.S.-based members respond to each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners and retirees are excluded from analysis so we can get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy. Data is weighted by engagement level to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership and the overall market population are not accounted for.

LinkedIn data scientist Danielle Kavanagh-Smith of LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team as well as Allison Lewis and Anat Zohar from LinkedIn Market Research contributed to this article.