LinkedIn Industries List, Analysis and Rankings (2022)

LinkedIn is a social media platform that connects professionals and businesses with the goal of making it easier to find the right person for the job.

LinkedIn offers two types of profiles: professional and industry.

A professional profile enables you to list your skills, experience, education, etc., while an industry profile allows you to connect with people who share similar interests or work in your field.

In today's blog post, we will take a look at how these industries have changed from 2019-2022 and what impact the Covid-19 pandemic had on them.

We will also list all of the industries that are available to you on Linkedin so that you know which niche best suits your skillset.

But first, a bit of history for those of you that are new to Linkedin’s industries.

Every LinkedIn member is required to select from among 149 industries, which best reflects their professional activity.

You are required to choose an industry at first as a new member of the platform, but you can change it later.

The popularity of these industries has changed over time, but the fact that you can search for profiles by industry makes it one of the most powerful tools for selling and searching for jobs.

LinkedIn Industries Benchmark and Statistics

In our analysis of LinkedIn industries, we chose to benchmark the data from 2019 and 2022.

The following statistics show how different industries have changed over time:

- The most popular industry for professionals is "Information Technology and services." In 2022, this category got more than 1,3 million (!) new members compared to 2021. It now makes up 4,7% of all profiles on LinkedIn.

- Other areas that saw a significant increase last year are E-Learning (up 3Renewables (up 16%). This may be linked to the major economic issues we are facing, such as climate change, cyber security, and the Covid-19.

While there was some important movement among the industries, the top 10 remained largely unchanged. The five most popular industries were "Information technology and services", Hospital Health Care", "Construction", "Retail" and "Education management".

Top 10 Linkedin Industry - 2021

The top 10 industries account for approximately 29% of LinkedIn's users. In these last 4 years, there have been few changes to the top industries ranked on Linkedin. One major change is for the "Higher education" industry, which had a ranking of 11th in 2020 and jumped up to 9th today.

On the other side of the coin, one of the few downer aspects was in the automobile sector, which dropped to 10th place by 2021 and stayed there through 2022.

In comparison, healthcare categories, in general, have seen a steady rise in their number of individuals. This may be connected to the long-term impact of pandemics.

There are no changes on the top three, which remained in the same order. The most popular industry for professionals is "Information Technology and Services" followed by "Hospital Health Care" and "Retail".

Here is the full list of LinkedIn's 149 industry categories available for you to select from, arranged by the number of people.

Linkedin Industry List (2022)

Which industry is better, a small one or a big one?

Choosing a major sector will boost your visibility. You'll also get a bigger audience and the potential for more exposure for your profile because these industries are popular with many people on LinkedIn.

Choosing a small industry is ideal if you wish to focus on one particular sector or niche. For example, there may be fewer opportunities in the "Pizza Industry" than in other bigger industries such as "Retail." However, this may personalize your profile to match a very specific industry need.

Take some time to explore what kinds of profiles exist under each category today so that you may choose an appropriate job path that complements both your own talents and interests!

Has the coronavirus pandemic affected Linkedin industry rankings?

To answer that issue, we'll look at which sectors exhibited the most significant changes in their ranks during the last years.

Highest ranking improvements

The "Transportation", "Warehousing" and "Packaging" industries, which are intimately connected to the observed growth of e-commerce, have seen a significant rise. During this time, there has been an increase in the number of new possibilities for these two sectors, some of which are anticipated to develop in the future.

The "E-learning" sector, for example, has undergone a significant transformation and subsequent acceleration throughout the pandemics. It has increased a staggering 15 positions, all the way from #99 in 2019 to #84 in 2022.

The e-learning industry has been expanding at a rapid pace due to the increasing number of people who want to learn new skills and have more flexibility in their working hours. Let's see how it performs when businesses begin to adapt their work flexibility strategy.

Linkedin Industries that lost the most positions

On the other hand, the "Management Consulting" sector has seen a downward trend in its ranks and has exited the top 30, declining 6 positions from #29 in 2019 to #35 by 2022.

The major ranking declines are more widespread, though some patterns can be observed for industries that are heavily impacted by social isolation such as Music, Performing Arts, Media production, Aviation, and Sporting Goods.

Linkboost userbase compared to Linkedin data

Linkboost has users in 137 of LinkedIn's 149 sectors. This means that Linkboost has users in more than 91% of all industries.

LinkBoost is a widely-used tool for building both authority and one's personal brand, so it's not surprising to see higher rankings in industries such as Marketing and Advertising, Professional Training & Coaching, Human Resources, and Consulting.

Why this is important for you?

Choosing the right niche is at the core of any successful sales or networking strategy. Narrowing down your focus to a more specific area will make it easier for you to generate accurate leads and stay within LinkedIn’s new limits, so don’t neglect this essential piece when planning out your campaign!

The best way to build authority is by sharing value (content, opinions) with the people that are in your niche target. This will help you connect and grow a solid following of potential customers who would be interested in what it is you have to offer them.

Linkboost is the best tool for quickly increasing your content's reach to new and specific niches.

Still not familiar with Linkboost? Watch this intro video to learn the basics!

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