For the first time, LinkedIn has mapped which skills are most uniquely found in almost every major city across the US and the EU, using skills and location insights from more than 175 million member profiles.
The UK map, based on an analysis of more than 16 million members, focuses on seven major cities: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Liverpool and Manchester.Liverpool, Leeds, and Manchester represent a northern “business belt”, defined by skills such as financial planning, customer service, and business development.This is an encouraging sign at a time when the Chancellor George Osborne has set out a vision of establishing a business hub in the north of England to compete with and complement London
London plays to type – the capital is a hotbed of diverse talents, reflecting the breadth of industries that have gravitated towards it over the years. Finance, business, and entertainment all jockeyed for position as the top skill category, with entertainment coming out on top. Despite London reinventing itself as a technology hub, these skills do not feature at all in the city’s most unique (though they do in Paris and many cities across Eastern Europe). Skills in Scotland reflect the basis of its economy. As was widely discussed during the independence referendum campaign, Scotland’s economy is heavily reliant on natural resources – in particular, North Sea oil.
Oil and gas, drilling, and electricity generation all featured among the top individual skills in Glasgow and Edinburgh. LinkedIn looked at the skills listed by members on their profiles, and their locations, to build a map of the stand-out skills in major cities across the EU. The map highlights the skill categories listed by the greatest share of a city’s population compared to the national average. As LinkedIn continues to develop its Economic Graph, a digital representation of the global economy, it will be able to build a global map of supply and demand for every skill listed on the site, and in the process help members find perfect job opportunities.
