LinkedIn in Latin America and the Caribbean: a rapid transformation of the labor market due to the pandemic?

The partnership between LinkedIn and the Inter-American Development Bank (through the Data Partnership) facilitated access to the data generated by the platform in the region. This information includes not only LinkedIn's hiring rate but also the penetration of skills in various sectors of the economy, two indicators that LinkedIn calculates based on the information it receives from its users. The hiring rate dropped more than 70% at the beginning of the pandemic, and its recovery has been sluggish. In September of 2021, it was still lower than what was observed in January 2020, following a similar pattern seen in labor markets in the region overall. However, the data by industry shows that this recovery has been heterogeneous. While some sectors have not recovered yet, others showed higher employment levels than those observed in February 2020. Industries such as information and communication technologies (ICT) or finance were more demanded during the pandemic and the LinkedIn hiring rates in these sectors were strong. In contrast, other sectors such as education and tourism have not recovered their pre-pandemic levels hiring rates.