Karin Kimbrough’s Post

Just spent some time with Alana Brittain on her APAC Take the Lead podcast discussing the future of work and the latest labor market trends in the region. From remote vs hybrid work, to AI, and hiring momentum in different industries, we covered it all. Hope you'll check out the podcast! Link: https://lnkd.in/gYQStPxn

Happy International Women’s Day! To me, this day is one to reflect on what we’ve achieved and the challenges that may still lie ahead. In support of this day, our team of economists and data scientists at LinkedIn have uncovered interesting insights related to how women’s hiring for leadership roles dips as the economic cycle turns down. One insight that stood out to me was that, until two years ago, women’s share of leadership hires had progressed upwards, half a percentage point per year, until 2022 when we began to see a reversal of this trend. In fact, we’ve reversed the gains previously made and are now back to 2020 levels. It’s these types of insights that are so important to make known so we can continue to press forward. Please see our latest research on gender topics below.  My thanks to our team of economists at LinkedIn including  Silvia Lara, Matthew Baird and Mar Carpanelli for their work spotlighting opportunities to close the gender gap at work. https://lnkd.in/gchni6gm #IWD24 #womenshistorymonth

Last month I attended the launch of a future of work conference: MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative. There were many insights and promising lines of inquiry discussed, but my one biggest takeaway was shared by the conference organizers and leading thinkers in this space, Daron Acemoglu, David Autor and Simon Johnson: that there is no predetermined path for AI, how it affects us will depend on the choices made by policy leaders, business leaders and community leaders. This outlook definitely gives all us more agency and less anxiety about what the future technologies will impact the workforce.

Our team of economists at LinkedIn have done some tremendous research around how AI is shaping the world of work and the jury is in: Skills are core to how we all navigate this change and emerge more resilient. But not just any skills; it’s the “soft” or “human-centric” skills that will only grow in their importance in this emerging age of AI. The New York Times just published a piece co-authored by LinkedIn VP Aneesh Raman and Jobs For The Future President & CEO Maria Flynn offering their expert view on the future, all backed by our unique data and insights from LinkedIn. With the arrival of AI, which skills are you finding to be the most important in your professional lives? https://lnkd.in/gfW2WZue

None of us have all the answers when it comes to AI, but we have data and insights to help guide our efforts and inform our decision making. This was one of the key points Meg Garlinghouse brought up during our session at the Global Nonprofit Leaders Summit from Microsoft this week. In the spirit of that, here are three things I see in our data that came up during our fireside chat: 1️⃣ The labor markets are healthy but less tight than before. Our data suggest hiring is about 10% slower than a year ago, and this new level of slack means more competition among job seekers. This may present a unique chance for nonprofits to scoop up talent with harder-to-find digital skills by offering flexibility and more purpose-driven opportunities. 2️⃣ AI is accelerating the pace of change in skills, especially digital skills, required for jobs. Nonprofits (and all organizations) will need to stay agile and invest in their talent. To meet the challenge of increased demand to bring in new technologies we’re seeing a 24% increase in CIO and CTO roles among nonprofits. 3️⃣ Labor markets may become more dynamic in the era of AI, opening up new opportunities for talent to move around organizations —and industries— more easily than ever, breaking down some of the siloing in labor markets. A big thanks to Microsoft for Nonprofits for hosting, including Kate Behncken and Devi Thomas. Also, shoutout to our LinkedIn Global Impact Marketing team—Samantha McLaren, Piper Sutherland, and Leo P.—for their hard work behind the scenes! Find more insights into AI’s impact on the labor market and skills by watching our full conversation, part of the day-two replay: https://lnkd.in/gqCTsShe

The new year always brings a renewed sense of purpose and drive and therefore an increase in labor market activity. Much of 2023 was marred by headlines of layoffs and recession fears. However, the ongoing stabilization in hiring across many industries, alongside a growing interest from professionals to find a new position in 2024 is creating a new sense of urgency that we hadn’t seen in quite some time. In the US, hiring accelerated in December with the US adding more jobs than expected and we saw this reflected in our own data with a 5.5% monthly hiring increase in December, the largest month-over-month increase over the past year. But these trends are not only happening in the US. Globally, we see that hiring declines continue to moderate across countries as labor markets around the world normalize. While these signs are trending in the right direction, it will also equate to an increasingly competitive job market. For example, we’re seeing fewer jobs for each person searching, alongside an increase in job seeker intensity. That said, even amidst the growing sentiment from jobseekers to look for a new position this year, it’s important to know where to look. 2024 will likely be a year where we’ll continue to see similar trends to what we saw in 2023 but with a renewed sense of agency and urgency from jobseekers to find new opportunities in a more competitive job market. For more our full 2024 outlook and the trends we expect to see playing throughout this year check out our January 2024 State of the Labor Market Newsletter. https://lnkd.in/gVpxnU9s

LinkedIn will join  #WEF24 this week! I'm excited to be there sharing insights from our latest LinkedIn research. One finding I'll be discussing there is that, during economic downturns, the number of women hired into leadership positions dips. We’ll discuss how to ensure women’s ongoing participation at all levels in the future of work. And I’ll be sharing my top takeaways from this chat with you on LinkedIn. Be sure to follow @LinkedIn Collective for standout moments from @WorldEconomicForum.

I recently spoke with Emmy Lucas from Forbes about some trends we’re seeing in the labor market and how AI can be leveraged as a tool. One trend is that workers in the U.S. and the U.K. are adjusting to a cooling jobs market by more actively pursuing career opportunities. We see a 15% increase in job applications per applicant compared to the previous year -- one sign of increased competition for roles. In addition, despite the cooling labor market, the diffusion of AI tools across the world of work continues at a robust pace. To learn more about this trend, check out the full Forbes story here: https://lnkd.in/er34Km48

Over the past year, AI has rapidly become a part of the cultural and business zeitgeist. On LinkedIn, we’ve seen a groundswell of conversations, hiring and members’ skills around AI rapidly increase. We summarized our take on how AI appears to be filtering through the world of work, In our first AI at Work  report in August. Today, we’re publishing our second AI at Work report. This one breaks down how generative AI is so far impacting the workforce differently depending on education, generation, and gender. It also explores who’s driving AI conversations on @Linkedin and  highlights the continuing shift we see in how business leaders expectGAI will impact their workforces. You can check out the full report below.  https://lnkd.in/gT2gJrAj

The transition from remote to hybrid work continues to be a key point of interest for professionals and employers alike. It’s one of the things that Aaron Heslehurst and I discussed on BBC News Talking Business a few weeks ago - here’s the latest that we can see in LinkedIn data: 🌍 Around the world, hybrid work is on the rise, while fully remote opportunities are becoming more limited. 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 🇮🇳 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 This global trend is especially pronounced in the UK, where hybrid roles made up 45% of job postings in August 2023. We’re also seeing hybrid roles are on the rise in major economies like the US, France, Germany and India. 🔎 Despite the decline, remote roles still form a larger share of job postings on LinkedIn than before the pandemic and are incredibly popular with job seekers. In the US, remote jobs got four times the share of applications compared to roles available in August. In the same month, two thirds of job applicants applied to at least one remote or hybrid role.  I firmly believe that remote and hybrid are so popular with professionals because they offer more flexibility which ultimately gives them more autonomy. For employers looking to attract top talent, they need to make a compelling case for them to commute to the office. This is about offering that spark of engagement in the workplace, so when you come in you’re learning, collaborating, and thinking of new ideas and opportunities. Recent productivity data seem to suggest flexibility hasn’t hurt productivity, generally speaking, but this is still a guess not a conclusion. How do you think hybrid work will develop in the next few years? #hybridwork #flexibleworking