Economic Graph Forum: Quantifying Skills Gaps
Ladies. And gentlemen, our program, will begin in ten minutes please, silence, all electronic. Devices at, this time thank, you. Meaning. Ladies. And gentlemen our program, is about to begin please, take your seats in silence, all electronic, devices thank. You. LinkedIn's. Economic. Graph is a digital, representation, of the global, economy. As. Members. Change jobs as, companies. Evolve. As. Positions. Are posted. As. Skills, are learned. The. Economic, graph grows, and. Now. We're helping those members. Taking. What they're adding, to the graph and. Creating. New opportunities with. Those insights. From. Business owners, to. Company builders. To. Culture, creators. To. Policymakers. Students. And. Strivers. The. Global. LinkedIn community is contributing. To the economic graph. Bringing. People and communities, together. To. Create opportunities. For others. One. Member, at. A time. As. You. Can see from the video we, couldn't be more excited. And inspired to. Build out this economic, graph at LinkedIn, hi. Everyone, welcome my. Name is Nicole Isaac, and, I manage US public policy, at LinkedIn I'm, also a part of the economic graph, team and we're, excited to share insights. And our research with you today. LinkedIn's. Vision, is to create economic opportunity. For every. Member of the global workforce all. Three. Billion, individuals. Why. Does that matter, it matters. Because in a time of, changing. Future of work which. Is impacted. By AI, automation. Widening. Skills gaps as well. As the rise of the independent, worker it is, ever more, critical, that we identify, ways in which we can work together, everyone. In this room to, resolve these challenges, we. At LinkedIn, are committed, to working with employers. Partners. Government. Policymakers. All. Of the educational, institutions. Training. Programs to, resolve this future of work and to, ensure that we're steps ahead. Now. LinkedIn, started, as a place where an, individual, could, post, their professional. Profile, this. Should look familiar because, hopefully, many of you in the room have, a profile, that looks just like this, whether, it's Ryan at MCC, or, my. Friend Dave at the National League of Cities or, Dennis, at the Markle foundation, we're. Excited about all of the profiles on LinkedIn, and the, ways in which these profiles, are helping to. Map our global. Workforce. Today. We. Know that our members, are not only, navigating. Their careers and sharing, advice but. They're finding jobs they're. Accessing, mentors, we've over a million, individuals, on the platform, who volunteered, to be mentors, and, they're. Sharing professional, content. All. Of these actions, together are, building. Our economic, graph a digital. Representation. Of the global economy. Today. The, economic graph, is comprised, of five. Hundred and forty six million, members. Around the world over. 20, million companies. Almost. 14. Million open, jobs that we can see today over. 3000, well, almost 30,000 institutions, of higher education and. A hundred, and twenty. Billion. Posts. And content, and. As. Our community grows our. Economic. Graph grows our. Vision. Is to ensure that we have a profile, for, every employer on the platform, such. That when there's an open job any individual. At any. Location. Whether in Detroit or Bangalore, or in. Cote. D'Ivoire or. Capetown can, understand, what are the skills needed for that open job and to, the extent that that individual, is not prepared, for that job today we. Would have a profile, for every educational. Institution on, the platform, and that. Individual, can access, those, skills, needed. For that job tomorrow. We. Are incredibly excited, about, the work that we're doing at LinkedIn through our economic growth partnerships. And whether. It's building tech, talent pipelines, in New York or, Los, Angeles. Mitigating. Youth unemployment. In, Toronto. Partnering. With the National League of Cities all. Across, the United States. Working. With the World Bank in. Developing. Countries, such as all. Across, sub-saharan Africa. And. Eastern. Europe and, our. Work with the Markle foundation. So. With that I, would like to turn it over to, my colleague, Jacqueline, Barrett who will provide more information about, our latest research that we're unveiling today thank. You. Thank. You Nicole hi. Everyone I'm an economist, on the economic, RAF team and I'm excited to share some of our latest work with you our. Theme today is quantifying, skills gaps and that's exactly what, I'm here to talk about.
Many. Employers say they cannot find people with the skills they need even. For entry-level jobs, skills. Gaps are an impediment to workers getting jobs and two, companies gaining essential talents. Everyone. Talks about skills gaps but we have very little insight, into how just how skills, gaps present themselves and. Manifest. Themselves among, and within organizations. States. And regions. We. Have data on 50,000. Unique skills these, are the skills that members add to their profiles, we. Track the supply and demand of skills the. Supply of members with them and the, demand from employers who need them. One. Of the advantages of our data is that it allows us to see trends unfold in near real-time. When. New skills emerge or when, demand for a certain skill suddenly, spikes we, can see we can quickly identify them. This. Data set is incredibly, dynamic and, we, are continuously, uncovering, new ways to leverage it to understand, complex, labor market phenomenon. Government. Sources of data on the workforce are some of the best available but. Even those have limitations. Because. Much of the data is collected via survey and curated. Manually, the. Rate of change in the workforce can, outpace the availability, of workforce, data and insights. That's. Why we're excited about the potential for our data to help fill in some of those gaps as a complementary, source in. Our. Monthly workforce reports, we were able to already. Highlight, changes to the hiring rate nationally. As, well, as with city and industry granularity. Additionally. Our, migration. Insights. Allow us to uncover dynamics. In the labor market with, more detail and before anyone else can as an. Example we, see that Chicago was serving as a regional, talent hub which, attracts workers from nearby college towns. While. It is drawing away talent, to, the coastal cities. So. Skills gasps our. Definition. Of a skills gap is a gap, between supply, and demand, for. Specific skill in. A specific local, labor market at, a specific point in time it. May be positive which, is the shortage or negative. Which is a surplus. At. LinkedIn, our granular. Skills data make, it abundantly, clear that, there's not one skills, gap. Rather. There, are many skills gasps plural. We. Are now at the point where we can measure skills guess very precisely in a. Specific geographic, location, for. Specific skills over. Specific periods, of time in, absolute. Headcount, numbers. We. Measure the supply of skills is the number of LinkedIn members who, have a particular, skill on their, profile in a given location. And. We met employer demand for skills by combination, of the, skills employers list in their job postings, as well, as the skills that they actually hire for. Not. Based on survey data or job descriptions, alone but. On the skills people actually have and the skills that employers are actually hiring for, the. Skills gap that we're measuring correspond. With exactly, what you'd expect to see with unemployment data, so. These and time periods they tend to have more skill shortages, also. Tend to have lower unemployment rates, because, those skills are in demand. This. Will allows us to look at macroeconomic. Trends affecting the whole country, its, most local micro trends specific. To a single city or, specific, industry. Our. Hope is that together, this, micro and macro, perspective. Into. Skills gaps will prove to be valuable for the policy community as, well as others who are trying to close gaps. It. Provides more transparency, into. What the actual needs are so. That we as a community can, go about addressing them more efficiently. If. You run a school or trying, to direct funding to a new training program it. Can help you know what skills are actually in demand in your local markets. Or. If, you're struggling to find a job and find, that your skills are overly abundant in your city, you. Can see which cities do have high demand for your skills and consider, relocation, for better opportunities. Let's. Look at the big picture at, the gaps that we have as a nation. Oftentimes. When people talk about the skills gap they're, referring to a national, need for more graduates, with STEM skills. We. Were curious to see what our number showed for skills like software development, and mathematics. We. Tracked skills gaps in the hundred, biggest US cities and in. Every, single city that we track, communication. Skills are the number one skill, in scarcity. Across. These hundred cities alone. The. Total, shortage is, 1.4. Two million. People. That's. Significantly, larger, than say the national, shortage for, software development skills. Which is around. 472,000. People. When. We're talking about communication, skills is a grouping we're, talking about specific, soft skills such. As communication, reasoning. And working in teams. Employers. Are asking for these skills and are hiring people with these skills yet.
Are Unfortunately. Not able to find enough people who have these argumento, Blee arguably. Fundamental, skills. The. Biggest shortages for soft skills in terms of headcount are in the biggest cities which isn't surprising. PC. Alone, is short of fifty nine thousand, people with communication, skills so. Here's, why this matters. As. Technology, transforms, the economy, many, individuals. Will need to not just learn but. Relearn new skills in order to remain competitive and, employed and, that. Means that soft skills are only growing in importance. Soft. Skills are durable and relevant, to many different professional, environments, and are. Ultimately, the, cross-functional, skills that enable people to succeed, is the world of work evolves. Skills. Like critical thinking communication, and. Problem-solving, these. Are the skills that are worth acquiring, they. Can't be automated and they're. In demand across all industries, across all levels this. Is a nationwide, macroeconomic. Issue. Let's. Zoom in and take a look at some of the local issues the. Micro economic, challenge is the. Exciting thing about our skills gap analytics, is that we can take a macro, trend and examine. How it's manifesting, itself at the local level. Digital. Literacy is another important, foundational, skill that, it's important for everyone to have as we, move into the future of work. Digital. Skills like knowing how to send an effective email or make, a presentation, that gets its message across. Interestingly. Enough, professionals. With these skills are distributed, across the u.s. but, they're still in high demand, in cities deemed to be on the cutting edge of today's, economy such as Washington, DC San, Francisco and New York all. Which are facing large shortages, of professionals, with these skills. However. Our data also shows that there are many major cities with intense surpluses. Like. Detroit Miami, in Atlanta, meaning. Professionals, may want to relocate to cities where their skills are needed. Another. Trend that's important to look at on the micro. Economic level is discrepancies, within specific, professions, like teaching for example. Most. People think of the US is having a large shortage, of teachers which. Is true in many of the largest US cities. Markets. Like San Francisco Seattle, and Boston, are for example graph lit grappling, with massive. Shortages, of thousands, of teachers. The. Factors that might be driving shortages, in these cities include. Well-documented, challenges, like, unaffordable, housing prices and competitive, job markets. But. In other cities. Demographics. And population, growth are pushing that supply demand, calculus, in the opposite direction. Even. With these surpluses these. Cities can still have a hard time hiring teachers though often, due to skills mismatches. In other areas of expertise. For. Example a city may have too, many elementary school teachers and not. Enough high school science teachers. Identifying. These nuanced, skills gaps on a local level is the, next step to understanding, the many dynamics. Influence, for teachers. Regardless. Of the skill in question skills. Gaps can be narrowed in a variety of ways. By. Training people to learn the skills that are in demand from employers. By. People moving to cities where their skills are in demand. By. Businesses, opening up shop in cities where there's an abundance of the skills that they need and by. Employers, offering, higher pay for in-demand skills. In. Order to narrow skills gap city, should seek to understand the dynamics, of their own labor markets, and create, policies, to align education, and training with employer needs. That's why we think this work matters, and that's our hope and sharing this today. Our. Goal is that quantifying, skills gaps at both, a macroeconomic and, a micro economic, level, can. Help policymakers, employers. Teachers. And workers understand, the dynamics, that they're operating in, we're. Just getting started and we'll have lots more to share here in the coming months, if. You're interested in working with us please, don't hesitate to reach out.
Thank. You. With. That I'd like to welcome Ann Marie slaughter who, is the president, and CEO of New America I, think, in action take take dedicated, to renewing America in the digital age and Jeff. Weiner who. Is the CEO of LinkedIn, under. His leadership LinkedIn. Has expanded, our global platform, to 24 languages in more than 30 offices, around the world as, well. As growing our membership, base from 33, million to more than 546. Million members around the world please, welcome anne-marie slaughter and Jeff Weiner. We. Have lots to talk about we're, going to have, a conversation for, about 40 minutes and then open it up to, all of you for, your questions. So. Jeff I have to start by saying I I thought, I knew LinkedIn, pretty, well yeah both as a person and as, an employer but. I didn't actually know about the economic rep I think of LinkedIn, as a place, you. Know where individuals. Get jobs and. I. So. It's I think of it as a network of relationships on a platform for a network of relationships, but you're. Transforming. That network, into a graph into, a as Nick, we. Just heard a digital, representation, of the economy, how do you think about the to those. Sort of two things coming together the the part of LinkedIn that everybody, knows and this, is really quite different so, they'll ultimately converge, and they'll be reconciled, let me take a step back by the way thank. You all for being here. This is the first time we've done an event like this in DC, and very, appreciative for all of you making the time Emery for you being. Here today really. Excited about the conversation. And. Another, big round of applause for Nicole, and Jackie I thought the next time job. Jackie. Was. Just presenting, material. That we've, never released before so there's a new methodology, for us we've, measured skills gaps previously. But. Not with this methodology, and you can see it's really exciting was that possible, in, terms of your observation. You thought you knew LinkedIn this is a different LinkedIn that was just presented there. One in the same but you're, absolutely right the. The average member. Of LinkedIn, today and what, they experienced, is somewhat. Different than what was just described. There's, a front-end. User facing, experience, that was largely built as. A professional, graph so if a graph is mapping, connection, right LinkedIn. Was founded, as a professional, graph that's what you experience that's the network, that's. The way in which we connect people to, other people, to the information, they need to the opportunities, that they're looking for and. That's very much related to our mission statement this is the other way of thinking about it there's kind of this this front-end experience and then behind the scenes this extraordinary, platform. With all this data another way of thinking about is our mission and our, vision well. You were describing us our mission to connect the world's professionals to, make them more productive and successful and, at. The, heart of that mission statement is an addressable opportunity. Of roughly 780. Million or so knowledge workers or professionals. Several. Years ago became. Apparent. To us and you could hear in that very, gracious introduction, as we, were growing from what was 33, million about 10 years ago to. Approximately. 550 million today it became, clear that the. Mission, was in sight at least the the top. Of that funnel in terms of connecting the knowledge workers we, still a lot of work to do to engage them to create value for them but, our vision has always. Been to create. Economic opportunity. For every, member of the global workforce north, of 3 billion people in global workforce and I'm, growing. Yeah. Yeah growing very fast and. We. Had always delineated, between the and mission for us the mission was an overarching objective. Measurable realizable. And hopefully, inspirational, the, vision was designed to inspire was true north it's, not something we were measuring success against, it, was the dream people.
Were Inspired by and it served its role as the, membership, continued, to grow and much faster than we were actually anticipated. We did something that I've never done in business before and it started about five or so years ago, we. Decided we were gonna operationalize. Our vision we're. Gonna measure success against the vision statement and it. Changed everything I'll. Give you an example when, I first started at LinkedIn. December, of 2008, shortly, thereafter I was doing deep dives with various teams and coming up to speed on the business and our jobs team was. Describing. The fact that we had somewhere in the order of 6,000. To 8,000, jobs listed on LinkedIn, Wow. Six thousand six, million six, thousand, and. In. Those early days we felt like there was a six-figure. Addressable, opportunity over time as the team became more sophisticated. Decided. That there were roughly. 350,000. High-value. Professional. Jobs what we should have on the site and the, team was working towards that end when we decided to operationalize. The vision, we. Began. To identify different kind of addressable which was roughly, twenty, million jobs that were digitally accessible, and open at anytime, the. Material, on the walls and in the presentation, sided 14 million we're up to north of 15 million jobs today that, are available on LinkedIn from. Roughly, 300, to 350 thousand, about four or five years ago that. Changed, everything about that team that road map those priorities, our investment, our technology. The infrastructural, needs changed, when, we decided we were gonna operationalize. The vision and the same thing that's happened across all six of those pillars I could do an equal discussion. Across all six so. Ultimately you are absolutely right your observation, is absolutely right this is a part of LinkedIn that you don't necessarily see day-to-day but with. Things like skills gaps analytics, what we presented in October of last year at our largest customer, event and connect our, talent analytics where we can do this for companies so. Any given company can see the fastest growing jobs the fastest growing, required skills the skills of their current workforce the, gap and then start, invest in a workforce strategy that. Enables them to deliver. The right learning development materials so. This is now all coming, to fruition it's all coming together it's all the same company, it's all ultimately. Going to be part of the same infrastructure, and the same product, offering but, it's definitely work in progress so. You mentioned, you anticipated. My next question, because the, front end is a user, experience, for all of us looking for jobs and again, employers, employees. And. So I was going to ask you so who then uses, and, I appreciate, it's not just the backend it's that other side, it's the it's, the taking the, result, of all those relationships and, making a graph, making. It making it real by making it virtual in a way by mapping it but, companies. Can use it but I worked. In the US government in the State Department and, we. Needed. All sorts of Statistics, of various kinds I never worked in the Bureau in the Labor Bureau but the BLS, obviously, is the place that comes out with these statistics, I would, think that that, this. Is the kind, of, mapping. The economy, that traditionally, has been the preserve of the Federal Reserve banks across.
The Company or or country, or or, state governments, or federal governments how do you see this, intersecting. With the the. Kind of mapping we need not just to, hire, individually. But to set those policies, ideally. In partnership, and working. Together the government and not only the government United States but governments all over the world have access to certain kinds of data that we'll never have access to they. Have objectives, that we can help them. Accelerate. The realization, of so. Hopefully this is the beginning of. Wonderful. Partnerships, and you know this has been ongoing now for several years this. Kind of analytical, framework helps us create, even more value but. Starting two or three years ago we created somewhat manually. Dashboards. Economic graph dashboards, and literally. Could pick any locality anywhere, in the world and. Identify. What I was talking about earlier within the context, of a company we could see the. Fastest growing jobs the skills required to obtain those jobs we could also see for any given locality. Who, is graduating with what skillset, from. What schools within the region, the. Extent to which companies were hiring in the region the fastest-growing companies within the region in flows of talent from other geographic, regions, and outflows, of talent to other geographic, regions and as you might imagine this. Is extremely, valuable information. For. Government leadership it's trying to create economic opportunity. For their constituents, so that, cities in the United States that cities around the world in countries around the world we've been doing some really cool stuff with Singapore, Prime. Minister Modi and India, completely gets this and has real vision in terms of what's possible by. Virtue of partnering with LinkedIn, to help us understand, where, the jobs are going to be in India what skills the citizens of India need and how we can help him get ahead of that curve and create, the right learning and development of training materials, to, train his workforce for. The jobs that are and will be and not just the jobs that once were so. There's all kinds of opportunities for us to work in partnership with our government I, want. To ask them about how so. Let's imagine you. In indeed. Really, effective. Communities, are gonna require the. Public sector of the private sector and the civic sector working, together and, so let's imagine you. Actually, have a city that. Has. That happening I was, I was actually just in Flint right so in lots. Of analyses. Of those, cities, where they. Have lots of jobs they're generating, demand people are moving in on your graph all the places people are moving into well, they're moving out of places, like Flint, and, yet frankly, as a country, we're, gonna have to be addressing Flint, Michigan, as well as Seattle, and or, Austin, or all these other places how. Then would, you think. About the policies. So. You can show you say hey you're losing, people you're losing, the very skilled, people you need and. You, want to keep those people how, how, do you move from that to the kind of policies, that can make that happen, so people are gonna go to where the jobs are with, a very very, important, caveat that, they can afford, to. Move, to the cities where, those jobs exist so. I think in terms of. Public. Influence or, subsidies. Or incentives or. What the government can do what kind of programs and policies, can be created, to facilitate. This, moving in the right direction. There's, the, the supply of talent, and then there's the the supply of the the jobs, in. Terms, of the jobs you know you could see from Jackie's presentation, earlier the migration, to, and from, particular. Cities and for particular jobs I don't, think the, the. Knee-jerk response, of a, city, with a surplus, of town is going to lose that talent to where, the, cities have great demand for that talent I think in part governments, can start to create incentives for companies to open up offices, where the talent already is for.
Starters We need to make sure that the companies who are in need of those skill sets and those people are aware, of where, the talent is so. That's the first thing that needs to change is facilitating. The distribution, of this information and data which hopefully we can play a role in next. Is is, there a natural. Movement. Towards, that geography where the talent exists should a company, a be opening, up shop there to the extent they, don't find it economically, feasible, doesn't, make sense from an ROI perspective to, what extent can the government get involved to create the right kind of subsidies, tax subsidies, other incentives. So. That those companies are creating, jobs in those places and I think we all realize to some extent it's not just gonna come down to the. Public sector in policies the private, sector also needs to take some responsibility, here you know we've we. Had to look ourselves in the mirror again. Jackie, and Rancho mentioned we have 30 cities, offices. In 30 cities around the world and when we looked at the cities in which we operated, one, of the things that became increasingly clear to us was it's, where, there's increasingly, economic, development, and growth and what you would imagine that makes perfect sense is logical and intuitive. We. Didn't have an office in Flint, or Detroit and, so, the head of our sales team like games. Leading, by example, yeah we're talking about all this stuff what are we doing about it we open up an office in Detroit and it's not a symbolic. Gesture, we. Need to start making a difference other companies do as well so I think, that's, where, it sits in terms, of the. Companies in the end the offerings in terms of the talent. Again. From a public sector perspective. Talent. Needs to be incentive to move to where the jobs are and unfortunately. Some, in the audience may realize this but, migration. In the United States is at a low, post World War two low and it's. Kind of an optimist razor solution, to it it's not necessarily, asymmetry, of information that, may exist to some extent people can't afford to go to where the jobs are there's. A very very, vicious cycle, so, what. Are we doing to subsidize. Or incentivize, people to move to where the jobs are when I I was just as I was listening to the presentation. I turned. On Marie and I said it's. Funny I'd never thought about this before but when I first moved. To the west coast to. LA from Boston, it was for a job at Warner Brothers and they, put me up in corporate housing it. Was in Burbank it, was because it got the job done got the job done I try to get out of there as soon as possible, and I got an apartment, on. The west side but. It. Made it much easier and so. What, are we doing to, create housing, even, temporary, housing, subsidies, so, that people, can be on boarded, in these new regions, that they might not be able to afford and, make. Sure that they are up and running and earning, an income and hopefully, able to then take care of themselves and continue to prosper. So there's, definitely things that can be done the good news I don't think any of us have all the answers the, data now, exists. The infrastructure. Now exists, to take a lot of the guesswork out of this and so, if we can take the guesswork out of this I think as long as we're all aligned on what we're trying to solve well we can start to put real solutions, in place so. Let's. Think about about, the. This. Mobility, mobility issue, and and think about it also in terms of the future of work because this is one of the things that you look at a graph like this and I want to come back to some, of the specific, skills because I'm fascinated. With the way you define skills, and the way actually you're. Building. On how. People define skills. Themselves so I want I want to come back to that but before that though when we think about mobility. And when you look at the graph that you presented the economic graph you presented, you know what. The worry is exactly, that you see big hubs and they, keep getting bigger, those, that's the power law that's the a scale-free networks, right and that's the way the Internet evolved when you have a big portal it just keeps getting bigger and the place is left behind gets further and further behind or smaller and smaller so, we have to think about how are you going to distribute, that, workforce, as well as make. Sure that the gaps are. Filled but that they're filled in a word a more distributed, way but. Part. Of it is a people can't afford to move to the cities part, of it is they cannot, afford to leave, where.
They Are and a big piece of this is the care equation. Because. And, people, you. Know that. Decline. In mobility that many people see in their many reasons but one of them is women, had gone into the workplace they, before, if you moved you mean if somebody moved your, wife moved with you and she. Got the. Kids in school and the. Doctor's appointments, and she did all that and she stayed, home and cared for them now if you have a care, situation. Often, with your family, or of, a very, sad or your husband's family however. You've worked it out you can't move there's a whole layer there and that's public policy, that LinkedIn is, not going to be shaping but it's around health care and early ed and child, care but. When, you when you look. At that and you you start to worry about the people who are stuck, who, are really, stuck. The. Danger, is that they get further. And further behind they can't move it's not housing, or incentives they just, can't. Move. Because you'd have to move their whole family, so, how do we think just more broadly about, the workers, who. Are there are not on LinkedIn or or who, are but, just, can't move and how do we prevent them from getting further behind because politically, that's just a huge issue so two things come to mind immediately and you're absolutely right in, terms of things. Beyond, costs. And the cost of living, within a city that has, fast growing jobs available. Remote. Work and leveraging. New. Technologies, evolving. Technologies, it's funny I was just meeting with our DC team earlier linkedin's DC temp which is grown we have an office about 25 people here combination. Of government relations cells etc and, a. Good. Portion, of the people in, the office are not, doing, their work in DC, per, se they're supporting, LinkedIn, offices elsewhere area - talent. Acquisition professionals, recruiters, and, I was like are we growing the office here so quickly that we need two recruiters here in the DC offices said no no we're supporting offices, all, over we're, supporting the offices in San Francisco, we're. Supporting the the recruiting. Efforts and product and product marketing, and of course they are they don't have to be in the Bay Area to do that and there, were multiple examples of this and it's just there were there were managers, of our teams in New York in DC why, because, the talent is here we, don't have to have them living in New York they're, traveling from time to time but. It was really eye-opening and, this is happening more and more it's not just at LinkedIn it's not just within the United States it's happening globally so.
All. Companies, should, be starting to revisit, where, people are working where, the work is happening and, investing. In the capabilities, and the technologies, to facilitate work. Happening remotely 1 2 companies. Need to be investing, in training, outside, of, their. Initial. Sphere of influence we all, have, to, extend. Ourselves otherwise. This, massively. Vicious, cycle, is going. To grow to the point where. All companies, will be harmed because, listen. If if. These individuals, can't afford the products and the services of the companies that are creating them because. They can't, earn a real living then. Everyone, is harmed the economy is harm the companies are it's in everyone's best interest to make that investment so that's that's really interesting that the one that I hadn't thought of that that one of the things you can do if you show that you, know the, Mississippi. Is as rich, in one set of skills that a company, in Minnesota, needs, they, can hire from, that city in Minnesota sippy without necessarily, moving so you're you actually can show where, you should be hiring a. Work. For a place that has the talent you need without moving them that's that's interesting, and not just an issue of technology, technology, would. Be a foundational, component, of that in terms of facilitating, the change in behavior it's also cultural yeah, so I you know seven. Eight nine years ago in. The. Earlier parts of my tenure at LinkedIn I would have told you that is a first principle as, many people as possible need, to be working under the same roof that, was based on my previous experiences. And, I. Hung. On to that with. Everything I had until, out, of sheer necessity I mean in Silicon Valley you just couldn't have the geographic proximity by, virtue of supply demand and balances so, we had to open up other offices, and you. Adapt you, evolve you become a network of course yeah figure. It out and that's the way of the world so, let's talk about specific, skills I mean obviously when, jackie was talking, the. Everybody. Thinks, we need coders, and. Nobody. I think in that this town would have thought that the big gap is communication. Skills I mean this is this is the, city of strategic. Communications. Firms. So. What. Do that so that that in itself is just to sort of challenge, our assumptions. About, stem, about. Well this is the hot shiny new thing that, the economy, where it appears the economy is going but actually that soft skills are greater in in greater demand and I will just say there's a book called the fuzzy and the techie by, Scott Hartley that makes the case that. In fact in Silicon, Valley humanities. Majors. Have done better than, science. Majors, you need to get into your first job off and you need a certain set of quantitative, skills but the folks who've taken off are often, in that I mean humanities, teaches, us empathy, and. An. Ability to, identify, with. With others in all sorts of ways but, how do you think, about the skills we're gonna need because that'd, be that, is we, talking about the skills gap and, at the same time I tell, people all the time that I had when I graduated. From college my father could say to me go, to law school get. A job in a law firm make, partner, and you are set for life I have two sons there, is nothing. There 19, and 21 there's nothing, I can tell them that I'm certain about set. For life because I. All I know is that the jobs they're gonna hold don't exist now and many of the jobs you would train them for now will not exist so how do you think about that so that covered, a lot of ground so, no. No it was it's fantastic, but we wasn't exactly a question no it's great was this it was fantastic, so just to parse it a little bit so, the last, thing that you said I couldn't agree with more the, the days in which people. Studied learn to trade learn, a discipline, a major got a job more set for life I think those days are coming, to an end if they're not already over the world is changing too quickly and. So one of the core skills is the ability to. Steep. In your learning curve every, individual, needs to relearn, how to learn and. Certainly. Intellectual. Curiosity is, going to go, a long way, but. I think everyone, needs, to become, a learner again so, I think that's I, think that's really important, as. Far as skills it depends, really on, one. Station in life where one is, and. What, we're trying to solve for I think if we're going all the way back to. Primary, school we talked a little bit about this prior, to went on stage I think our schools need to increasingly, be focused, on, critical.
Reasoning Creative. Problem-solving, and collaboration, I think. Those are becoming. Foundational. Skills in a modern, more digital more global more networked world and. You can see it in terms of the gap, with regard, to communication, and specifically. Team, building and. Collaboration. I think. Above, and beyond that it's. Really important, for people to have basic, digital fluency, you know there's a lot of talk with in stem circles, about coding, and in. A perfect world everyone, would be may I expert. But. Just digital, fluency, the. Abilities on Jackie's presentation. To. Communicate. Digitally via email, to create a presentation a, word document, facility. With a spreadsheet and, one. Of the reasons for the importance. Of that is that with the rise of advanced technology, and the, number of jobs that are going to be displaced and the number, of jobs that are going to evolve to the point where people need to be reese killed and retrained even if they still have their existing jobs it's. Really important, that you have a strong foundation in, place because when you have to learn multiple, skills concurrently, it. Compounds, the challenge, and the difficulty, if you have that digital fluency in place you are much better positioned to, learn that next new skill so. I think that's gonna be really important as well and then you know it's, not gonna hurt to code you, have organizations like code.org that. Are trying to ensure that every, classroom in. The United States is teaching, basic. Programming, skills and very. Thankful, for that effort because I think it's gonna make a world, of difference so you, know there's multiple ways to, to, approach it coding. Is the new French right. I mean in the sense that it's a language and you everyone. When I grew up anyway everyone took one foreign language and it was generally French and at this but because you do I don't, I actually don't think people will need to, code in. The sense it'll be more like Lego where you're gonna be able to snap together blocks. Of, prepared, code but I do think it's just like learning a lent foreign language makes, you much more sensitive, to other cultures, and, and it just trains a part of your brain you need that. It would that coding and some, computer, language would be the same I think, also the, on the interpersonal skills front we, touched on the gap that exists with regard to communications, but it's also, not. Just communication, but just being a human being and I know you've done a lot of work in terms of where job opportunities, will continue to exist in, areas that won't be as easily replicated, or, replaced, by machines, and those. Interpersonal skills matter we see and it's oftentimes counterintuitive. Given, everyone's discussion about a a I and the rise of the robot but, sales, development. Account. Executives. Business, development, executives, these. Are people in great great demand and we see skills gaps existing. Along those lines, it's. Human. Beings are not going to be replaced across the board anytime soon and there are going to be industries, that are going to be segments, that are going to be jobs that will be displaced that will require change. But. You know it's funny Elon Musk just very, recently, has. Learned after, I just going very deep on the. Production. Process, for. The three, that. They may have over. Invested, in automation, yeah and he. Recently tweeted that it turns out human beings may have been underrated I. Saw. That but, it's for. A Seattle. It's, another a piece, of I, think what the gap graph reveals, that I found fascinating as Jackie was talking to said boy here here, there are shortage of, communication. Skills critical, reasoning skills and, working in teams and so, I thought okay so if I'm on LinkedIn and I want to advertise that I have, what people are, looking for I would, say I'm a communicator, I'm a reasoner, and I'm a team worker or I'm a thinker, that. Generally. Emphasizing. Your soft skills, is. Often, seen as. Essentially. Disguising, the fact you have no hard skills in other words in the way that. Is not something. That people jump, to you're on I often, note on linkedin, or on twitter people, say I'm a connector. I actually, think connectors, are hugely, important. That ability, to, bring people together in the right way for the right purposes, but that is not a skill employers, are willing to pay for and often it makes them suspicious, that, you you know if you say I'm a financial analyst. I, have. These programming, languages, I you know I understand, statistical. Analysis, that's, the kind of thing that people, think yes that that. That hard soft, dichotomy. Still. Plays, I think to the advantage, of hard skills and yet you're showing, soft, skills are the ones we need so how do we how, do we tweak.
The Way we define, those skills or proclaim, that we have them in a way that actually, gets employers, to hire you it's. A great, observation. And question, I think it's starting to change it's. Already starting to change I think in historically. Hierarchical, organizations. Where there was domain expertise, and you. Know whether it was a financial analyst, or an engineer, those. Were are always. Very highly valued I think increasing, these organizations, become flatter as. The. Network within an organization, or, around the world becomes. Stronger, and the connections between people I think companies are increasingly emphasizing, and finding value, in the, ability for people to communicate with one another to collaborate, to, inspire and motivate to, evaluate, to coach to teach so. All those turns yes so and so, I think it's just gonna it's gonna take some time before that becomes increasingly explicit, so that those are skills that are being sought out but the, reason we're able to show those gaps exists is because people are posting jobs looking for exactly those skills and those jobs are going unfilled so, I think we're already starting to see some change there but you're you're right historically. Those. Softer, skills were not deemed as valuable I'd I do think it's gonna change and yeah are you thinking, about working with people to certify. Or badge them cuz that's the other problem if I say I'm a financial analyst. You can tell whether I am or not or not pretty quickly if and. I can give you tangible. Proof that I've done these things and, you know but if I say I'm a communicator. I'm an empathizer, I'm, a collaborator. It's. Harder, to know. So. Is there are these are there ways to certify, that I think ultimately there will be I don't know that it's necessarily going to be LinkedIn as a principal and the certification business, it made but ultimately I see our role more our platform, yeah and for. The, companies that are. Generating. Those certifications. To easily, be able to plug those in so once you have passed. A particular course wherever. You're studying, that. Company, if they have the right relationship with LinkedIn, would, be able to flip a switch and, your certification, ends up showing up in your LinkedIn profile that's only one part of the equation what's gonna have, to happen for this to work and for, listen I would love nothing more than, for this to happen as soon as possible because I think we, spend too much time and, energy on. The. Idea that degrees. Are the end-all. Be-all and. Degrees. Are important, and they matter and that kind of education, is incredibly. Valuable but, it, shouldn't have to be a neutrally exclusionary. Debate as to whether its degrees versus, skills its degrees and skills, and we all need to recognize there's, a lot of people out there that, don't have access to a four-year, degree particularly. From a prestigious university that, a lot of companies exclusively. Recruit from and yet, these. Graduates. From school these young adults. They. Have the. Aptitude they have the grit they have the perseverance, they have the growth mindset they, have the kind of learning curves I was talking about earlier they. Know how to overcome adversity they're, hungry. Passionate, they're, gonna kick ass if given a chance they've. Got to be given a chance and so. What will happen ideally. Is once they're certified once. They're going, through, less. Traditional routes and companies. Hire them based on their certification, by virtue in, the future of doing a search on LinkedIn for someone with that certification and, they're. In place, and they're successful, that's. When change starts, to happen because then companies say I want, more like that you. Know where do we find this person they're incredible, and at, the end of the day because there, is a, talent, crunch right now companies, are gonna go to where they can solve the problem, right. So it is time to hear from all of you and. Do. Try do not follow my example and do ask for questions of no disquisitions from you please. Floors. Open. You're. In the front. Um. Huh. Yeah thank. You so much shame should I introduce me yes please my name is Liz Wilkie I'm one of the directors, in the Economics Department at the Millennium Challenge corporation and. Where you actually spoke there not, that long ago. It. Seems to me sort of these, soft skills. Require. Lots of things like emotional intelligence, critical. Thinking maturity, impulse control. Everything. Sorry. Yeah. What. I what, I what, strikes me is that lots of these skills are skills that. People. In high socioeconomic statuses. Have through. Their networks through their peers through their, education, through their families, and, the people in lower socioeconomic statuses.
Tend. Not to develop or, tend to develop with much more great difficulty, as. The future of work evolves. Towards these soft skills there, seems to me to be a very implied, problem, of inclusion, and how, do we touch people sort. Of at the bottom end I know LinkedIn, has its own challenges right with attracting, people that are not sort, of on high-skilled. Professional, levels how, does LinkedIn view. The. Sort of increasingly. Unequal. Distribution of, the skills that are going to be really critical to future work, and, and how do they see their role in trying to bridge that gap in, order to help people sort of build, and maintain the soft skills that they may not be currently touching, but that may be important, to touch in the future for inclusion reasons, yes, so it comes back to that vision statement to create economic opportunity, for every, member of the, global workforce not just knowledge workers not just, high. Value high skilled professionals, and we take that very seriously, we have an. Organization within LinkedIn called, LinkedIn for good and their. Priorities. Are about serving the underserved. Communities. Within our membership, and the broader population so. Unemployed. Youth. Veterans. Refugees, and. The. Numbers may, not be as big but. We feel like it's an obligation of moral obligation this isn't just about business. It's not just about, revenue. It's. Also about the realization of our, purpose the role we believe that we play in the world in, terms of the specific, concern. That you, articulated. I couldn't, agree more and, it's incumbent, upon those. Responsible. For creating the curriculum and, our, educational, infrastructure, whether. It's the, public sector or the, private sector and and people just getting, more involved we. Need to do better so by way of example, it's not through LinkedIn per se but one. Of the things I feel personally, very strongly about is the importance, of teaching compassion, which. Didn't come up when we were talking about some, of the the necessary skills, but, you. Know the world's becoming increasingly, tribal, and digital. Technologies, are accelerating, those trends and we, all now. Increasingly, have the wherewithal, to self-select. Into, in. Groups, that. Sound. Like us and look. Like us and agree, with us and, that's. Not good for anyone. The. Same technology, can. Be utilized for, people. To be able to share their, perspectives, their unique perspectives, on the world and for others to learn from that, and them and to walk a mile in their shoes and, I believe, this should start in primary, school and the compassion, can be taught, working. With an organization, actually in DC called everFi, to. Develop, curriculum. Around compassion. And we're looking forward to rolling that out in September, and so, it doesn't need to stop with compassion, all. Of the the EQ, high EQ. Skillsets, that you were referring to earlier should. Increasingly, be baked into our. General, curriculum and social-emotional. Learning is. Not a new concept and thankfully. You are seeing more and more schools. Pursuing. That but you raised a really important. Point which is there's probably gonna be a very high correlation. With. The income, the median income for. A particular, school community, and their emphasis on that kind of skill or skills. So. We just need to to do better by, the underserved, communities. Mike. Is coming your way that way there you go thank. You Brian, Wilson director the workforce data quality, campaign here. In DC. So. Your data for the economic, graph is based upon a sample, sample, that's drawn from individuals, and employers that are part of LinkedIn, this.
Sample, Obviously, isn't the universe, of workers and employers it's. Not, a scientifically. Drawn, random, sample, of, workers. And skills and employers, in order, for policy, makers and others to use this data from the economic, graph how. Are. You recommending, folks, take into account that this is a, particular. Sample, of data that. Isn't, necessarily. Unless. You've come. Up with adjustment. Techniques. Representative. Of the full universe, of of, the, supply and demand for skills, so. I'll start and Jackie our guy, members. Of our team's our economics, team can chime, in it, starts, by being completely transparent in terms of the methodology in terms of shortcomings. We're, not trying to misrepresent, what this is about we have access to certain kinds of, and we, want to be able to leverage that data to create value for organizations. And for people and you. Saw some of the results of that I, think. There are going to be limitations, until we, have a broader cross-section and, one. Of the ways that we can solve for that is forging. Partnerships with, organizations, whether they're governments, or NGOs or, companies. To. Gain, access to a broader set of data that, we can start running through the same infrastructure, that we're utilizing to, generate, these insights. Jackie. You're a guy anyone. A. Great. Point but something that we're always thinking about and have tried to make. Sure that we are accounting for things such as the fact that our, membership, base has, greatly ramped, up and we don't want to say things like just, because we have an increase from who. Was the 33 million when he started to close, to 550, now that, that indicates that there is more supply or more demand so, we are we have various techniques for making, adjustments, for things that are happening on our platform, and also, making sure that, to. The best we can reflecting. What's happening in the real world. Hi, in Cauldron from Politico, I want. To ask a question about the. Working. Class component, of all this, before. You even talk about how you, know you start, to solve, skills. Gaps among, working, class people I'd, imagine it would be hard. Even. For LinkedIn, to have, an idea into. Where. Some of the job, shortages, and surpluses. Are for, people who are not even on the platform, or not necessarily, digitally. Equipped. And have. A. Lot. Of steps that they would need to take before they could get to say working. Remotely for a team in another city like you were talking about so if. You could give some insight on that that'd be great yeah so. Couldn't. Agree more and for. Starters and. It comes back to what, it takes to operationalize, and manifest, our vision we, are increasingly, focused. On middle. Skilled workers, and blue-collar. Workers, and jobs and it turns out that. We have far more of, those jobs, as. Part of our index than we realize historically. We. Need to do a better job of standardizing. Some. Of the data and cleaning, up the, job posts that are in the index, but, we were very pleasantly, surprised by some of the numbers that we saw and we think if we can start. To create a. Situation where we have a, comprehensive, list, of middle skilled jobs available, on LinkedIn, not. Only is gonna serve the middle skilled workers already on LinkedIn and I'll come back to that in just a second but it's going to attract new, members that, go, beyond our core and, that starts to build on itself then you get the power of the network where those middle skill workers are inviting other middle skilled workers that they know and leveraging their networks and the power of a network the, ability to leverage people, that you know and their. Knowledge and their information the opportunities, that they have access to that's Universal that's not specific, to any one segment. Or sector. It. Turns out we. Have more, blue-collar, workers, or middle-skill members, than one. May imagine. Roughly. 20 to 25, million here in the u.s. north. Of 80 million, globally. And. That was without. Focusing. On it to the extent that we're gonna be focusing on it going forward. From. The Washington Post what, media.
Right I. Like. To hear what what more you think the government, should be doing on retraining. And rescaling, you talked in your remarks, that you think the government should do more to incentivize, workers, to move and to incentivize companies to locate where the workers are but. What you know there's so much focus right now in Washington, on retraining. What what what's, your message to the lawmakers on that. It's. Not the similar from what we've been talking about thus far which is we're in a position now, whether it's LinkedIn or other, similar platforms. Where. We have collectively, access, to data that will enable us to better. Understand, what's. Happening and proactively. Address it so. I don't think this is gonna fall within the realm, of the public sector exclusively, government. Specifically, or universities. Junior, colleges vocational training, facilities, or companies, I think we all need to be working in partnership. It's. Not going to hurt for the government to be investing, more money in retraining, or it's kellene it's certainly not going to hurt for the government to be providing the right incentives, to companies to be, providing. The right rescaling and the right training, for their employees, the. Companies should have the best insight into what they need I say should because, that may not always be the case for a whole host of reasons but companies. Are on the front lines companies, see where. The growth opportunities, are they see, what's. In the pipeline in terms of new products and services they're gonna be launching, they. They should have a grasp that I say should and I'll come back to that in just a second of the, skills that their current workforce, possesses, not, all do and just like the government companies. Are now in a position where, they can get access to that data this stuff does exist, so we can start to answer questions that historically, we, were not able to answer, and if, we can work in partnership government. Private, sector and the. Educational, sector so, whether it is four-year universities, or junior colleges two-year programs, or vocational, training facilities, stronger. Partnership, between the, companies, and the educational, sector to. Say hey, this is where we're going to be hiring wouldn't. It be great if you bake this into your curriculum so. That you can train people for the jobs we know are gonna be there by the time your students are graduating. So. There. Was a question over here because, I've been I've been discriminating. In favor of, the left but if do you have a. Truly. Same one more one. More. Who's. The last I think, over here. Thank. You very much my name is mark root Jim with the rise of the rest seed fund at revolution, I wanted. To talk a little bit more about your decision to open, an, office in Detroit and can, you talk about how LinkedIn, is prepared, to be a partner, in the Detroit ecosystem.
Other Businesses, there as, opposed to just opening, that office hiring, outside talent and bringing them in but actually really partnering, with the community yeah, you, know it starts with the, the kind of work that we've been talking about today so our. Economic graph team our G our team, sitting. Down with local officials to understand what they're trying to solve for to make sure they have access. To the data that we're seeing in the trends that we're seeing and then, start to prioritize, what. They'd like to solve for how we can make a difference. So, that's at the highest, level in terms tops down in terms of scale there's also just from a Bottoms Up perspective. Being a part of the community in Silicon, Valley we. Work very closely with a number of organizations, organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of the peninsula, year, up management, leaders for tomorrow, who. Provide, a pipeline into, just, unbelievable. Talent that, we wouldn't necessarily have access to and those, are locally forged relationships, so I would, you. Know I'm looking forward to our team in Detroit being able to do the same thing there okay. I think one one North one one very less one, more. With. The National League of Cities we, are the oldest. And largest organization. Representing, mayors and council, members across the country and we. Have had the privilege of partnering, with. LinkedIn. Over the last two years working. With six cities, around there, building. Equitable, pathways, to post-secondary. And work, for success, creating. Multi, sector partnerships, on the ground. LinkedIn. Traveled, with us across the country, really. Sharing the data with, teams of business, leaders mayor's. Community. Organizations. I heard somebody talked about, people. Who are not necessarily LinkedIn. Members and, so, the work that we have been trying to do is. Really thinking about how to lift up certain. Communities, in, cities across the country and the, data has been very very helpful. Recognizing. That it's not the end-all but it's a compliment, to. The data that, cities, have and, are, using so I just really wanted to give a shout out. Who wants to know more about it I just mentioned, the city's fear in the room 3 Texas cities, Houston. Austin. Corpus. Christi, we, are also in Jacksonville, Florida. Charleston. South, Carolina and. Have, I missed any. Nashville. Tennessee Thank You Elizabeth. So anyway I'm happy to talk about it but it's been a fantastic partnership. And I just, wanted to say that thank you thank you I. Think. We are done, we couldn't talk for a much longer but thanks very much thanks everyone. Ladies. And gentlemen we will now take a short break our program, will, resume promptly in 10 minutes thank, you. Ladies, and gentlemen, our program, will begin in two minutes, please take your seats and silence, all electronic. Devices at, this time thank, you. Ladies. And gentlemen please take your seats we're, ready to begin our program thank you. You. Are. We still feeling excited, and pumped, awesome. Thanks. Guys, and, so now, it gives me great pleasure to introduce our, four esteemed, panelists. We. Are incredibly, excited and, honored to have governor Northam, here, who, was sworn in as the governor, of Virginia this, past January, Governor. Northam, is a US, Army veteran and, he, was a pediatric, neurologist. Before, he served as Virginia's. Lieutenant, governor, and be elect being elected into this role, just this past November, so, please join me in welcoming governor, Northam. Next. We have mushy libéré who, as you, know served. As a chair of the Federal, Deposit Insurance, Corporation, the, FDIC. From. 2006. To 2011 where. She steered, the agency, through the 2008. Financial crisis. Thank, you. Thank. You on behalf of my family and all of America thank you, she. Is a former college president, and a frequent commentator on financial. Regulation as, well as higher education and. This. Is my favorite part of her bio she has twice been. Named the most powerful, woman on the. Forbes, magazine. National, list so with that please welcome this, year ago. Next. We have former, Secretary, of Education, John. King who is now the president.
And CEO of the Education, Trust a national. Nonprofit organization that. Identifies. And, closes, opportunity, and achievement gaps from, preschool, all through, college. We, actually, overlapped, in the administration, and it's a tremendous honor to be here with you secretary King thank, you. And. Then finally. Our moderator. David, leonhart who is a columnist. And editor, the, New York Times as you. Know he was founding, editor of upshot, which uses, data visualizations. To. Offer an analytical. Approach to, the day's news and. He, also won a Pulitzer, Prize in, 2011. Thank, you David. With. That I will turn it over to David who will moderate the panel thank, you thank, you for that generous introduction, thank you for grouping. Me in with this wonderful group of experts, and panelists, this, is the nicest space. For a panel I think I've ever been in. It. It. Energizes me rather than the opposite which is great, so. We want to dive right in we're gonna have a conversation. Among. Ourselves at first and then we're gonna open it up to all you so as you start, to think of questions and, ideas, and disagreements, and all that, we. Want you involved toward the end of it so, I want, to start with a broad framing. Question. Here, and. In some ways it's unfair I'm asking the three of you to solve the problems of the world but if. Folks like you don't we're. In trouble, so. As. You look around at some one point we talked about putting up a slide we don't need the slide but if we'd have it now's the time to do it, there. It is. So, what, this slide does and, it comes from some academic, work. From. A bunch of folks who you've heard from including Emmanuel Saez until, most Piketty what, it does is it looks at income growth by different groups, for. The first few decades after the war and then the few decades since 1980, and the, fact that the light blue line is higher than the dark blue line means that basically for nearly every single group of Americans except for the very rich income. Growth has slowed over the last few decades for, many of them had slowed close to zero once you take inflation to account and. In. Addition to this graph you can look at almost any other metric you can look at net worth you, can look at things that are more important than money you can look at the really alarming statistics, that I know you're grappling with governor about deaths, of despair, and the opioid, crisis, you can look at the percentage, of kids who are g
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