The Most In-Demand Jobs Right Now
The job market remains strong, despite growing concerns of an economic slowdown. But while hiring rates are above pre-COVID levels across many industries and countries, it’s still prudent to prepare for more uncertainty.
No matter if economic conditions tick up or down, one function will be critical for companies in either case: learning and development (L&D). Whether hiring remains extremely competitive or headcount budgets begin to dry up, upskilling existing employees can create an internal talent pipeline for otherwise hard-to-fill positions.
Perhaps that’s why demand for training supervisors spiked by nearly 5x in recent months, more than any other job on LinkedIn globally. The number of paid job posts for training supervisors grew by +374% (or 4.7x) between April 1 and June 30, 2022.
Eager to learn (and develop) more? Read on to discover the full rankings of the most in-demand jobs and the jobs with the fastest-growing demand. This story is updated on a quarterly basis to help talent professionals manage expectations, inform hiring decisions, and understand the changing landscape of the talent market.
Jobs with rapidly growing demand in recent months: training supervisors, physical therapists, and delivery drivers
Whether you’re trying to tamp down high turnover rates or “build” talent internally (in lieu of “buying” external hires), investing more in L&D can be a sound strategy.
Since employees whose skills aren’t being well utilized are 10x more likely to look for a new job, upskilling your workforce could help improve retention. And if you’re struggling to hire for the most in-demand roles, building out your workforce internally may be the most feasible option.
Given the economic uncertainty before us, a near 5x increase in job posts for training supervisors may indicate employers are looking to hedge their bets by betting on L&D.
Jobs with the fastest-growing demand on LinkedIn
Roles with the greatest increase in LinkedIn job posts, Q1 2022 (January 1 – March 31) vs. Q2 2022 (April 1 – June 30)
Training Supervisor +4.7x more job posts in Q2 2022 vs. Q1 2022 Patient Service Representative +3.9x Physical Therapist +3.6x Distribution Specialist +3.2x Delivery Driver +3.2x Office Coordinator +3.2x Pediatric Nurse +3.2x Kitchen Staff +3.1x Oracle Specialist +2.9x Brand Representative +2.5x
Healthcare roles represented two of the top three roles with the fastest-growing demand, with patient service representatives and physical therapists seeing increases of almost 4x and over 3.5x, respectively.
Some physical therapy clinics report being overwhelmed with new appointments in recent months, citing loosening pandemic restrictions for an increase in elective surgeries, which have led to a sharp uptick in the need for physical therapists.
And while burnout has been a challenge for virtually everyone amid the pandemic, it’s been especially devastating for healthcare workers. A recent survey of healthcare professionals pointed to childcare challenges as an acute driver of burnout — so if you’re struggling to hire or retain this talent, investing in childcare benefits could pay great dividends.
Frontline workers continue to see strong spikes in hiring demand, particularly for logistics roles like distribution specialists and delivery drivers.
It’s hard to say whether this is due to the increasing popularity of delivery services overall, or whether companies are struggling to hire and retain this workforce. Globally, there are mixed signals on how the workers themselves feel: A new survey of 14,000 Japanese delivery drivers showed 64% were satisfied with their work and over 80% intended to stay in the role for a while; at the same time, a recent report from South Korea paints a much darker picture for delivery workers facing stagnating pay and rising costs.
Other frontline employees — like kitchen staff, who saw demand grow by over 3x in recent months — are also pushing for higher pay and more training opportunities, according to a new survey of frontline workers by McKinsey. That brings us full circle, as this could be another contributing factor to the growing demand for training supervisors.
Most in-demand jobs overall remain largely unchanged: engineers, nurses, and salespeople are still highly competitive talent pools
As they’ve been for much of the pandemic, the most in-demand roles have been relatively stable. Software engineers and salespeople routinely topped these lists before the pandemic, and new LinkedIn data reveals these functions tend to get more InMails from recruiters than other workers.
Jobs with the most demand overall
Roles with the greatest number of LinkedIn job posts, Q2 2022 (April 1 – June 30)
Software Engineer (no change in rank vs. previous quarter) Registered Nurse (+2) Javascript Developer (-1) Salesperson (-1) Java Software Engineer (no change) Project Manager (no change) Delivery Driver (+10) DevOps Engineer (-1) Full Stack Engineer (-1) Customer Service Representative (+7)
The high demand for nurses, on the other hand, is likely due to extremely high burnout conditions for healthcare workers, as discussed above. A new U.S.-based survey of over 2,500 nurses found 75% experienced burnout and a shocking 50% had been verbally attacked, intimidated, or assaulted by patients or their families.
Clearly, this calls for changes in how nursing professionals are valued by their employers (not to mention their patients). A recent opinion piece written by nurse Kara Yates puts the situation in stark terms: “Support nurses . . . as we call for meaningful raises to encourage nurses to stay in or return to the profession. Many of us became nurses because it is a calling. Many of us have left because — as nursing currently stands — we are devalued as humans.”
Final thoughts
The tight labor market has shown few signs of slackening, so talent professionals can expect to stay busy throughout 2022 — whether they’re focused on retaining existing employees or enticing new candidates to join their organizations.
Methodology
Based on global LinkedIn data on all premium job posts from January 2022 up to and including June 2022. The most in-demand jobs are those with the highest number of job posts in the most recent quarter (April 1 – June 30, 2022). The jobs with the fastest-growing demand are those with the greatest percentage growth in the number of job posts in the most recent quarter, relative to the previous quarter (January 1, 2022 – March 31, 2022). Roles with fewer than 1,000 job posts in a quarter and roles for which the majority of job posts come from a single company were excluded from this analysis.
