What are the Top Industries on LinkedIn?

I wanted to know what the top industries on LinkedIn were for Chapter 4 in my book, A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Clients Create Their Next Move. (Spring 2019). Unfortunately, I could not find anything more recent than in 2016.

So in February 2019, my virtual assistant (Patte) and I used the LinkedIn search function to look up every industry on LinkedIn and record the numbers of people in that industry.

There were a few surprises as I really thought I knew what I’d find. The biggest surprises were how high the construction field (#3) and the automotive industry (#9) were on the list. I could see that some people indeed were front line people like carpenters and mechanics, but the numbers were much larger for the owners, sales staff, human resources, and I.T. That makes sense as they are building their networks to provide more services.

I had no surprises with some of the top industries on LinkedIn such as Information Technology, Hospital & Health Care, Education Management, Retail, Financial Services, and others. If you are in these fields and want to advance you really need to have a strong profile and presence on LinkedIn.

The 10 least-represented industries on LinkedIn are shipbuilding, think tanks, political organizations, fishery, fundraising, tobacco, railroad manufacturing, alternative dispute resolution, nanotechnology, and legislative offices.

• Is this a reflection of the numbers of people who work in those fields?
• Or are these just industries that don’t need what LinkedIn offers?

Keep in mind, these numbers are still potentially signficant—even the field of nanotechnology has 177,799 (as of February 17, 2019). I would still consider having a LinkedIn profile in some cases in these least represented industries, as LinkedIn can still help you create your professional online presence. Even in these smaller industries, you want people to know what value you bring to the industry. Having a LinkedIn profile and online presence might just be the thing that sets you apart from others in your field.

Here are the Top 25 Industries on LinkedIn

2016 numbers are from Joshua Waldman’s post

		Feb 2019	Aug 2016
1	Information Technology & Services	17,076,099	1
2	Hospital & Health Care	13,445,850
3	Construction	12,878,172
4	Education Management	10,294,354
5	Retail	10,289,983	10
6	Financial Services	9,450,549	5
7	Accounting	8,527,864
8	Computer Software	7,938,087	4
9	Automotive	7,708,673
10	Government Administration	7,486,477
11	Banking	7,472,071
12	Marketing and Advertising	7,447,442	2
13	Higher Education	7,392,617
14	Health, Wellness & Fitness	6,599,303
15	Real Estate	6,384,135
16	Telecommunications	6,263,932	9
17	Oil & Energy	5,986,554
18	Food & Beverages	5,805,185
19	Mechanical or Industrial Engineering	5,257,926
20	Hospitality	5,095,957
21	Electrical & Electronic Manufacturing	4,894,985
22	Insurance	4,884,242
23	Primary/Secondary Education	4,774,434
24	Human Resources	4,408,289	3
25	Internet	4,400,270	7

**How did we collect this information?

1. Found a list of all the industries on LinkedIn
2. Went to the search bar on LinkedIn (in upper left) and hit ENTER (left the search bar blank)
3. Went to “All Filters”
4. Typed in each industry
5. Recorded the numbers

Thank you Patte for pulling these numbers together 🙂

If you are interested in seeing the entire list of industries check out this google doc. http://bit.ly/peakcareers103

Read more about LinkedIn here.

 

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Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

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