When Millenials Are Looking For Jobs, Detroit Is One Of Their Top Cities Says LinkedIn

Posted on September 22, 2016

Those in the millenial generation are taking a good look at Detroit when it comes to searching for a job.

LinkedIn released today a list of 5 surprising cities that are rapidly attracting millenial job seekers. In case you didn’t know, demographers and researchers often use the range from the early 1980s to the early 2000s to define them by age. Number three on the list – and number three in their results – was Detroit.

One of the reasons this data is interesting is that it is from LinkedIn, which is a huge social network focused on business.

Here’s what they did, looking at the highest amount of growth in interest:

We looked at the LinkedIn job search behaviors of millennials in the U.S. on LinkedIn (which make up 44 percent of all job searches on our network), to better understand their shifting job preferences of what has the potential to be one of the most powerful generations of our time.

Mid-sized cities were of most interest. Topping out the list was Austin, Texas and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Then after Detroit was Cleveland, Ohio and Charlotte, North Carolina round out the top five.

The top companies people were looking for jobs at were General Motors, Ford (good news for those in the auto sector who are trying to attract young talent) and Quicken Loans. The top industries were Automotive, IT Services, Marketing and Advertising. There are 40,000 positions in the area that are open according to LinkedIn.

This is interesting, as we’ve reported earlier, employers say they are having trouble finding talent with the right skills in the local pool.

With interest continuing to increase in Detroit and thousands of apartments currently under construction in Detroit (mostly in the greater downtown Detroit area), it looks like there may be more growth ahead for the Motor City. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has said at events as recently as that 5,000-6,000 new apartments are coming online in the next few years.

One of the challenges of this fast change and growth will be to make sure along the way those who have always been here also have an opportunity to take part in the resurgence as well.