June 10, 2017
According to a recent report from LinkedIn, Philadelphia is losing its workers largely to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. The migration observed to the West Coast in the last 12 months was heaviest in the Bay Area.
This was determined by LinkedIn’s own bank of active user profiles. From there, it was determined that for every 10,000 people in Philly who happen to be on LinkedIn, an average 2.9 moved to San Francisco. In L.A. the rate is 1.76 and in D.C. it is 1.53.
This doesn’t mean a mass exodus from the professional world of Philly, however. While people have been leaving for warmer weather and more tech jobs on the West Coast, Philadelphia has welcomed its own population of newcomers, hailing from areas rich with college grads like State College and Scranton.
“For every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Philadelphia, 1.23 workers moved to the city in the last year from State College,” the report says. In fact, job hiring is on the rise here, with hiring 1.36 percent higher in May 2017 than in May 2016.
LinkedIn contributes the departure of Philadelphians to new cities to the skills gap. In Philadelphia, according to the report, the top three most abundant skills are pharmaceutical, healthcare management, and medical healthcare.
The scarcest skills in Philly are predominately media related: radio broadcasting, TV production, and photography.
Additionally, while the West Coast and other areas of PA are growing hotbeds of migration for Philly, the report yields that New York is still No. 1.
“Philadelphia has the most gross migration (gains + losses) with New York City,” the report says. “So for every 10,000 LinkedIn members in Philadelphia, 90.12 workers either moved to or from New York City in the last year.”
Check out the full report here.
