Still feeling that the buzz around AI is more sizzle than substance? Well, employers aren’t — at least not according to the latest LinkedIn data on paid job posts.
Demand for AI engineers grew rapidly for the second quarter in a row, suggesting that companies increasingly see recent advances in artificial intelligence as a real sea change, rather than a tempest in a teapot.
Today’s new data also reveals surging and sustained demand for in-person talent, particularly in two key sectors: retail and healthcare. Roles such as shop manager, nursing manager, retail salesperson, and registered nurse appear in either the top 10 most in-demand jobs overall or the top 10 jobs with the fastest-growing demand.
What are the most in-demand jobs right now?
Whether you’re recruiting for these roles in particular or simply curious about broader labor market trends, read on for the full rankings and reflections on the most in-demand jobs.
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 the fastest-growing demand: AI déjà vu
This first list is designed to be dynamic and ever-changing. Typically, you’ll see 10 new jobs on this list every quarter, as we did in the previous edition.
That’s why it’s so remarkable when a role manages to make it two quarters in a row — and even rarer for one to actually move up the rankings. And yet that’s exactly what we’re seeing with the role of AI engineer.
Jobs with the Fastest-Growing Demand (QoQ)
Roles with the greatest increase in share of paid job posts, Q3 2023 (July 1 – September 30) vs. Q2 2023 (April 1 – June 30, 2023)
- Shop Manager
- Artificial Intelligence Engineer
- Restaurant Specialist
- Marketer
- Dietary Aide
- Development Team Lead
- Beauty Advisor
- Nursing Manager
- Receptionist
- SAP ABAP Developer
While AI engineer is a relatively new title that employers are hiring for, many of the skills required may be more familiar than you think — like programming proficiency in languages such as Python and C++ or natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning skills. AI educator Nisha Talagala covers this in detail in an insightful story all about the AI engineer role. (She also helpfully explains that, no, AI engineering is not the same as AI prompt engineering.)
Many of the other jobs with fast-growing demand revolve around retail (shop manager, restaurant specialist) and healthcare (dietary aide, nursing manager) — a trend we’ll see reflected in our next list, below.
Most in-demand jobs overall: sales, service, and nursing top the charts
This next list — the top 10 roles with the highest volume paid job postings on LinkedIn over the most recent quarter — tends to be far steadier and stabler than the first growth-based list.
Despite that, we see some meaningful movement in the latest data.
Most In-Demand Jobs (Q3 2023)
Roles with the greatest number of paid LinkedIn job posts, Q3 2023 (July 1 – September 30)
- Salesperson (+1 rank vs. previous quarter)
- Customer Service Representative (-1)
- Retail Salesperson (+2)
- Registered Nurse (-1)
- Software Engineer (-1)
- Project Manager (+1)
- Store Associate (+1)
- Driver (-2)
- Licensed Practical Nurse (+2)
- Store Manager (no change in rank vs. previous quarter)
Salesperson grabbed the top spot, unseating customer service representative, while retail salesperson jumped two spots to join them in the top three.
With store associate and store manager also making the top 10, fully half of the most in-demand jobs this quarter revolve around sales and customer service — with three of those five roles explicitly placed in a retail context.
“With consumer spending continuing to show resilience and pivot toward services,” says LinkedIn’s senior economist Kory Kantenga, “we see in-person sales and interactive roles rising on the list of fastest-growing and most in-demand jobs.”
Meanwhile, nursing talent continues to be highly in-demand, a trend we’ve seen sustained over the past several quarters. “Employment in the healthcare industry in the U.S., for instance, has surpassed prepandemic levels,” Kory says, “but remains below where it would be today based on its prepandemic trend. Nurses remain a core group in healthcare where shortages persist and demand remains high.”
Final thoughts
Whether you’re looking to hire AI engineering talent to help your company stay ahead of the curve, salespeople to keep the lifeblood of your business pumping, or nursing staff to care for patients, know that you’re going up against stiff competition. Ensure your hiring process is as optimized as possible, from crafting the job description to making a competitive offer that meets candidates’ needs.
Methodology
Based on global LinkedIn data on all premium job posts from April 2023 up to and including September 2023. The most in-demand jobs are those with the highest number of job posts in the most recent quarter (July 1 – September 30, 2023). The jobs with the fastest-growing demand are those with the greatest growth rate, with growth rate calculated by the share of job posts in the most recent quarter relative to the previous quarter (April 1 – June 30, 2023). Roles with fewer than 1,000 job posts in either quarter and roles for which the majority of job posts come from a single company were excluded from this analysis.
Over this past quarter, LinkedIn data teams made improvements to the backend to ensure accuracy; due to these updates occurring within the timeframe of this analysis, precise figures for quarter-over-quarter growths have been omitted, with growth numbers to return in future editions.
*Photo by Showtime
