The IT Nerd

In previous editions of the Workforce Confidence Index, LinkedIn examined what Canadian jobseekers are willing to do to land their next roles in this tough labour market. But what effect is the pandemic having on Canadians who are currently employed?

LinkedIn’s latest research looks at what’s motivating Canadian workers to stay in their current roles right now – and how that may differ across generations:

• As Canada’s official unemployment rate in January rose to its highest since August, the latest Workforce Confidence Index survey found roughly two thirds (68%) of employed Canadians are “sheltering” in their current jobs in some form – that’s to say prioritizing a steady pay cheque over career growth or work they find inherently rewarding.
• More than half (53%) cited a steady paycheck as a top motivator for staying in their current position, while roughly a quarter pointed to their organization’s perks and benefits as a key motivator (a figure that jumped to 37% among members of Gen Z).
• About 15% of respondents said they were largely keeping their roles to wait out the pandemic for a more favourable job market, although that figure climbed to 28% among millennials, and was as low as 9% among baby boomers.

For the full results, including additional insights on three downtrodden Canadian industries that have seen a jump in optimism over the last few months, visit here. 

Methodology

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey that is distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 1,000+ Canada-based members respond each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners & retirees are excluded from analysis so we’re able to get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy.

Data is weighted by engagement level, to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership & overall market population are not accounted for.

Canada’s workforce is feeling the most confident since July – but that optimism isn’t shared equally across the country, with those in Montreal and Vancouver reporting a much brighter picture than others, according to new LinkedIn data.

LinkedIn’s overall Workforce Confidence Index score for Canada reached +33 at the end of last year, on a scale of -100 to +100. The figures reflect an aggregate of how Canadians feel about their short-term job security, financial wellbeing and one-year career outlook, based on a regular survey of members. (You can find previous editions here.)

How optimistic does the workforce feel across Canada?

• Driving the improvement in sentiment in the most recent quarter, workers in Greater Montreal reported the highest confidence scores of all the Canadian cities we tracked, averaging +46 in the period covering October to December. That reflects a climb from average scores of +40 over the summer and +31 back in the spring. While it’s hard to pinpoint what prompted the improvement in sentiment in and around Montreal, their scores moved higher primarily in the financial and career confidence metrics. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Quebec fell to 6.7% in December, the lowest among provinces, according to Statistics Canada, as employment picked up in professional, scientific and technical services.
• Workers in Metro Vancouver were the next most optimistic, and saw the biggest quarterly jump in optimism in the winter, with scores of +39, up from +30 in the summer. The three-month moving average unemployment rate in Vancouver was most recently a (comparatively) low 7.4%, official figures suggest, perhaps underscoring the relatively upbeat mood.
• Those in Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and their surrounding areas all fell somewhere in the middle of the pack, with scores of +32, +30 and +27 respectively, all inching down two points from the summer. Wider employment in the Toronto metropolitan area was unchanged in November and fell 1.5% in December after five months of gains as tougher public health restrictions were enacted to combat the spread of COVID-19, according to Statistics Canada.

For the full results, including additional insights on how Canadians feel about their career growth, finding a new job, and employer outlook visit here. Research methodology is shared below. 

Methodology 

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey that is distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 1,000+ Canada-based members respond each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners & retirees are excluded from analysis so we’re able to get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy.

Data is weighted by engagement level, to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership & overall market population are not accounted for.

Canada’s workforce is bracing for a tense holiday season, with fewer people planning to take time off this year and a majority reporting work or job-hunt related stress.

LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence Index report – based on a survey conducted between November 2 and 15 – sheds a light on how LinkedIn members are spending the last couple months of the year of 2020, compared to the same period last year, as well as how men and women may be experiencing remote work differently.

Holiday plans and sentiment for the winter:

• 88% of respondents are planning to do less traveling this holiday season, either within or outside the country.
• 55% say they’re planning to take less time off overall than the same time last year, and just 13% are planning to take more time.
• About 31% say they will spend more time working this year, compared to just 17% planning to work less and 53% planning to keep the course.
• Some 65% of employed workers said they’d been somewhat or very stressed about their workjust entering the season, while 78% of jobseekers said the same about their jobseeking activity.

For the full results, including insights around the differing concerns among men and women working onsite and remotely, visit here. 

Methodology

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey that is distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 1,000+ Canada-based members respond each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners & retirees are excluded from analysis so we’re able to get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy.

Data is weighted by engagement level, to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership & overall market population are not accounted for. Confidence index scores are calculated by assigning each respondent a score (-100, -50, 0, 50, 100) based on how much they agree or disagree with each of three statements, and then finding the composite average score across all statements. Scores are averaged across two waves of data collection to ensure an accurate trend reading. The three statements are: [Job Security] I feel confident about my ability to get or hold onto a job right now; [Finances] I feel confident about my ability to improve my financial situation in the next 6 months; [Career] I feel confident about my ability to progress in my career in the next year.

LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence Index for Canada – based on a poll of 2,957 members between September 9 and October 19 – found that workforce confidence scores have been trending down among unemployed jobseekers in recent months. And this group has reported concerning assessments of their financial status, with 43% describing their financial status as “only fair” and an additional 24% describing it as “poor.”

So, what lengths would unemployed active jobseekers go to in order to find a new role in this climate?

• Some 81% of Canada’s unemployed job seekers said they are open to considering some form of pivot, whether it’s changing their career to work in a different industry or sector (73%) or working in a different role or job function (62%). Among them, those in a stronger financial position were more likely to say they were willing to work in a different industry (81% of those with “excellent” or “good” financial situations, versus 70% of those who describe their financial condition as “fair” or “poor”), but less likely to be willing to change roles (59% versus 65%).
• Nearly a third of unemployed jobseekers (30%) said they would consider starting their own business or line of work, while 38% were willing to work as freelancers or independent contractors.
• Education was also a popular tactic, with 46% open to returning to school part-time or taking online skills classes, and 14% saying they would even go back to school full-time.
• Almost half (49%) were willing to take a step back of sorts, with 38% willing to accept a sizeable drop in income and 36% willing to take a sizeable reduction in seniority or title. Among those in more precarious financial positions, 41% were willing to accept the title or seniority change, compared with just 28% of those in better self-reported financial health.
• Some 29% were willing to relocate within Canada to where jobs are available, while 13% were willing to relocate outside the country. 

For the full results, visit here. 

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey that is distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 1,000+ Canada-based members respond each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners & retirees are excluded from analysis so we’re able to get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy.

Data is weighted by engagement level, to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership & overall market population are not accounted for. Confidence index scores are calculated by assigning each respondent a score (-100, -50, 0, 50, 100) based on how much they agree or disagree with each of three statements, and then finding the composite average score across all statements. Scores are averaged across two waves of data collection to ensure an accurate trend reading. The three statements are: [Job Security] I feel confident about my ability to get or hold onto a job right now; [Finances] I feel confident about my ability to improve my financial situation in the next 6 months; [Career] I feel confident about my ability to progress in my career in the next year.

Neil Basu and Alexandra Gunther from LinkedIn Market Research contributed to this article.

Several months into the pandemic, some of the Canadian workforce’s concerns around remote work – as well as being in the physical workplace – appear to be dissipating.

LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence Index report, which is based on a survey of over 900 members from September 7 to 20, reveals how the worries of those who are working remotely or operating in physical workspaces have evolved since the pandemic began – as well as what Canadians expect their work setup to look like once the pandemic is over.

Here are some of the key findings from the September Workforce Confidence Index for Canada:

On remote work…

• Only 19% say they are currently concerned about achieving less at their jobs while remote, with 20% saying that they used to have that concern (but don’t anymore) and 61% say they’ve never had it at all.
• And while a quarter still struggle to focus on work while remote, some 21% of respondents say they have overcome that worry, and it has yet to be an issue for a small majority (56%).
• A majority (61%) also say they have never worried about stalling their career progression while remote, with 12% saying they are no longer worried about it and just over a quarter (27%) saying it’s still a concern.

On working at the office…

• Some 41% of those working onsite continue to cite anxiety around exposure to others who do not take safety guidelines seriously, with 14% saying they have overcome the concern.
• Relatedly, a quarter of respondents cited worries about attending meetings and other public/shared spaces where large groups of people congregate, with 16% saying that concern is in the past.
• Some 21% of workers say they used to but no longer have concerns that their workplace safety guidelines and precautions are unclear or non-existent, while 19% say they no longer worry about working in close proximity with other colleagues or customers.

On expectations after the pandemic is over…

• A majority (55%) of Canadians expect their employers to keep at least some of their workforce remote in a substantial way after the pandemic is over.
• Among them, the biggest group – 43% – are anticipating a hybrid model of fully remote workers and staff who come into a workplace several times a week.

For the full results, they can be found here.

Methodology

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey that is distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 1,000+ Canada-based members respond each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners & retirees are excluded from analysis so we’re able to get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy.

Data is weighted by engagement level, to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership & overall market population are not accounted for. Confidence index scores are calculated by assigning each respondent a score (-100, -50, 0, 50, 100) based on how much they agree or disagree with each of three statements, and then finding the composite average score across all statements. Scores are averaged across two waves of data collection to ensure an accurate trend reading. The three statements are: [Job Security] I feel confident about my ability to get or hold onto a job right now; [Finances] I feel confident about my ability to improve my financial situation in the next 6 months; [Career] I feel confident about my ability to progress in my career in the next year.

Today, LinkedIn launched the LinkedIn Stories feature in Canada, along with a suite of updates to its platform. Stories provides members with a less intimidating way to share everyday professional moments with their LinkedIn communities, such as offering perspectives from their work day or an event, giving insights on timely breaking news, walking through a product demo or teaching others a skill.

With Stories, Canadians can engage with their network using a full-screen ephemeral format (live for 24 hours). And since Stories won’t be permanently attached to profiles, it provides members with the freedom to share their professional side with an extra personal touch, and message their network in more timely and relevant moments.

Other exciting LinkedIn updates include:

• New site design. The heart of LinkedIn is its community. There are incredible examples of this every day on the platform: people and organizations coming together to help, support, and inspire one another. LinkedIn wants its site and member experience to reflect this. The new design is personable, inclusive, approachable, and warm. It’s been simplified while still providing the structure necessary to be easy to navigate and understand.
• Messaging updates. Conversations are the centerpiece for members to stay informed and find opportunities, and LinkedIn has seen an increase in 25% of messages sent since last year. To help professionals continue to find and engage in conversations they care about, LinkedIn is adding to its messaging experience from giving members the ability to edit or delete a message to managing their messages in bulk to initiating a video call right from their messages, LinkedIn wants to make it as easy as possible.
• Search updates. LinkedIn is taking steps to better-organize search results into a more intuitive, streamlined, and relevant experience. For instance, people, jobs, events, courses, posts, groups, and more will now appear together in a clear and more understandable format, making it easier for members to find what they need faster and browse through results. For example, if they search for java, they’ll see people they may know with that skill, jobs requiring that skill, relevant LinkedIn Learning courses and related groups to join.

LinkedIn has released the Canadian edition of the 2020 Top Startups list, featuring the top emerging startups to work for. In the wake of COVID-19, the 2020 list reflects the current state of the economy and the world, showcasing emerging and resilient startups and how they’re navigating the ever-changing world of work

The startups on this list are all experiencing growth, are still in high demand amid the pandemic, and have weathered through an increasingly challenging economic climate this year. These are the key trends we’re seeing among the Top Startups in Canada this year:

• BREAKING BARRIERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: Education technology companies have pivoted to embrace new virtual and flexible models to help students pursue educational opportunities remotely. This includes application assistance, online study from abroad, increase student diversity on campus, advocacy for greater flexibility in study permit requirements for international students.
• EXPANDING ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE: Digital health startups have gained further prominence in the fight against COVID-19, as they address labour shortages, offering telehealth, pandemic healthcare needs, employee-focused health, de-stigmatization of mental health. 
• EVOLVING FINANCIAL SERVICES: Financial services companies have ramped up innovation to help companies and consumers access the funds they need in new and creative ways, for example online valuation tools and emergency funding for startups, early access to paycheques and government support for consumers.

These are the top emerging startups on LinkedIn right now:

1. Clearbanc – As e-commerce booms in Canada over the pandemic, it’s no wonder this fintech startup – which specializes in funding online brands – has found its way to the top of the list. Clearbanc has also recently launched a tool to help startups assess their own worth.
2. Drop – Drop is a personalized platform that matches consumers with brands through a mobile app, allowing customers to earn points for purchases that can be redeemed for rewards. The company has raised over $71M from global investors, and offers employees unlimited time off.
3. ApplyBoard – The online education platform connects students with academic institutions and recruitment partners around the world. Even as the pandemic disrupts education, the edtech startup closed another round of funding that brought its valuation to USD $1.5 billionand has continued to hire rapidly, adding nearly 250 new employees since March.
4. BookJane – BookJane’s online platform creates a sort of gig economy for workers across health care facilities. As demand for doctors climbed through the pandemic, the company has been helping the Ontario Medical Association manage a shortage of physicians.
5. Symend – Symend uses analytics and behavioural science to create individualized debt recovery programs. The startup, which has offices in Calgary, Toronto and Denver, Colorado,received USD $52 million in funding earlier this year and plans to hire up to 300 more roles in 2021.

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Methodology:

LinkedIn measures startups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase over one year, which must be a minimum of 15%. Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page, as well as how many non-employees are viewing employees at that startup. Job interest counts rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings. Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away from LinkedIn Top Companies, as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce. Data is normalized across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is January 1, 2020 through July 31, 2020. To be eligible, companies must be independent and privately held, have 50 or more employees, be 7 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, venture capital firms, management and IT consulting firms, nonprofits and philanthropy, accelerators, and government-owned entities. Startups who have laid off 20% or more of their workforce within the methodology time frame are also ineligible.

*For fairness, we have removed LinkedIn and Microsoft from consideration for the LinkedIn Top Startups list as we do with all other lists in the editorial franchise.

LinkedIn Top Startups – Canada 2020

1. Clearbanc
2. Drop
3. ApplyBoard
4. BookJane
5. Symend
6. Dialogue
7. BlueDot
8. League
9. KOHO
10. Maple

As Canada’s students return to school, how have working parents handled juggling childcare and work responsibilities during the pandemic?

LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence research sheds light on the challenges faced by working parents and how professionals across different functions and generations are feeling about the outlook and the stresses of the pandemic.

Here are some of the key findings from this edition of Canada’s Workforce Confidence Index:

• Women and men were relatively equally likely to say they were currently providing childcare full-time (18% and 16%, respectively)
• Men were slightly more likely to say they were working outside of normal business hours to make up hours (42%) or that they were working fewer hours overall in order to provide childcare (26%)
• Nearly half of men and women surveyed reported being unable to focus on work while their kids are home, and a majority struggled with providing education for their children.
• Those who worked in engineering roles were the most confident of all (+43 overall). Those in business development roles also reported high scores (+40 overall).
• At the other end of the spectrum, those working in administrative, support and community and social services saw the lowest scores, at +14 and +29 (tied) respectively. Those in administrative positions had an outright negative career outlook at -1, but felt slightly better about their finances (+6) and much better about job security (+36).

For the full results, visit here.

As wide-spread closures and social distancing continue to affect business in Canada, confidence among Canadian workers remains low. But sentiment is not outright negative according to LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence Index, a biweekly snapshot of how workers are feeling about their job security, financial situation and their career in both the short and long-term.

So far, the index has polled 2,000+ LinkedIn members covering the weeks of April 1 – 7 and April 13 – 19, and uses a scale from -100 to +100 to reflect the sentiment of respondents and their expectations about the labour market.

Here are some of the major findings from the second edition of Canada’s Workforce Confidence Index:

• Those working in the energy and mining industry were the least confident, driven largely by concerns over their personal finances and broader career outlook. The sector has recently faced mass layoffs as the industry grapples with a fresh plunge in oil prices. 

• By contrast, members working in the software & IT services, public administration, and health care industries reported the highest confidence (+30), lifted by high scores in their current job security. 
• Workers in construction were among the most likely to expect their companies to be worse off in six months. 
• By contrast, members of the media and communications industry had very low confidence in the present, but were more optimistic about their companies’ short and long-term futures.
• Active job seekers continue to feel less confident (+5) than the broader workforce, but there are signs their pessimism about recruiter response and job availability is bottoming out.
• More Canadian companies are offering support for their employees’ emotional wellbeing (44%) than in the last poll (39%), and 31% are offering online learning resources, up from 27% previously.

Workforce Confidence Index Methodology

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey that is distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 1,000+ Canada-based members respond each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners & retirees are excluded from analysis so we’re able to get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy.

Data is weighted by engagement level, to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership & overall market population are not accounted for. Confidence index scores are calculated by assigning each respondent a score (-100, -50, 0, 50, 100) based on how much they agree or disagree with each of three statements, and then finding the composite average score across all statements. Scores are averaged across two waves of data collection to ensure an accurate trend reading. The three statements are: [Job Security] I feel confident about my ability to get or hold onto a job right now; [Finances] I feel confident about my ability to improve my financial situation in the next 6 months; [Career] I feel confident about my ability to progress in my career in the next year.

LinkedIn recently launched LinkedIn Opportunity Index 2020, a composite measure that seeks to understand how people around the world perceive opportunity and more importantly, the gaps in getting to those opportunities.

According to the research, which surveyed over 30,000 respondents in 22 markets globally, people want to find opportunities that allow them to pursue their passion, have work-life balance, and job security. Canada is ranked as number 10 of the 22 markets with an overall Opportunity Index score of 98. While Canada is generally more confident about gaining access to and pursuing opportunities, Canadians feels cautiously optimistic in their search for opportunities.

Key findings include:

• Confidence is highest in developing economies and among younger generations.
  • The United States and Canada appear to display cautious optimism. For both North American countries, the measure of opportunity that they are most and least confident about are the same: both believe that in-market opportunities are available but feel that their quality of life has dropped in comparison to their parents’.
• Age is a multi-faceted challenge for different generations, but contrary to popular belief, people are united in embracing change, regardless of age.
  • While working hard (81%) tops the list of what people perceive it takes to get ahead in life, a willingness to embrace change (80%) comes in a close second.
  • For 43% of Boomers, age is their biggest opportunity gap while 25% of Gen Z struggle with a lack of work experience, which is age-related as well.
• Stronger, more diverse professional networks boost overall confidence, but few are actively networking.
  • Globally, 76% respondents believe that knowing the right people and having the right connections is key to getting ahead in life, yet only 22% are actively looking for networking and mentorship opportunities — likely because a majority of respondents (51%) believe that the lack of a network is a difficult challenge to overcome.

If you’re interested in reading the report in full, you can access it with the following link.