The industry hiring the most people in every country and city

The industry hiring the most people right now is not the same everywhere. MakeResume counted LinkedIn job ads by industry across countries and the largest cities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia to show where vacancies are concentrated — and which sectors punch above their global weight in each local market.

Millions of workers have changed jobs since 2021. In the U.S. alone, nearly one hundred million people left roles between 2021 and 2022. Hiring still outpaced quits in that window, which is why many economists describe a Great Reshuffle rather than a one-way exit: people moved, and employers struggled to refill what they left behind. The pattern sits inside a wider global workforce crisis that is expected to deepen in many countries.

Unemployment is only part of the story. Gallup's research argues that the deeper jobs crisis is meaningful work: globally, just one in three workers agrees that “At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.” If you can switch cities, countries, or industries, the maps below show which sectors were advertising the most openings on LinkedIn at the time of this study — a practical starting point before you rebuild a targeted resume.

How did we identify the industry hiring the most people in each location?

We counted LinkedIn job ads overall and by industry, then calculated which industry held the highest share of ads in each country and in the most populated cities of the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Australia. We also isolated the industry whose local share exceeded the global average by the widest margin — the sector with the most uniquely popular hiring presence in that market.

That second measure matters because a large industry can dominate ads everywhere. Uniquely popular hiring flags the sector that is unusually busy relative to the rest of the world, not only the one with the biggest headline count.

Which industries are hiring the most people in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Australia?

As of the snapshot below, restaurants lead U.S. LinkedIn ads, hospitals lead Canada, construction leads the UK, and government administration leads Australia.

• The restaurant industry has the most vacancies in the U.S. (7.86% of all job ads as of June 2023).
• Hospitals and Health Care is Canada's biggest potential employer right now (14.82% of all job ads).
• The construction industry has the most vacancies in the UK (9.22%).
• Government Administration is the sector hiring the most people in Australia (11.60%).

Location	Industry with the most LinkedIn ads	Share of local job ads
United States	Restaurants	7.86%
Canada	Hospitals and Health Care	14.82%
United Kingdom	Construction	9.22%
Australia	Government Administration	11.60%

These shares describe advertised openings, not guaranteed hires. Use them to decide where demand is loudest, then tailor applications with an ATS-friendly resume for that industry's language.

Which sectors face the most recruitment pressure worldwide?

Staffing and Recruiting and IT Services and IT Consulting are the two industries doing the most hiring in the most countries — 28 countries each. That does not mean unemployment is even: the International Labour Organization expected global unemployment to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, with North Africa and some Arab states lagging, while re-employment grew at half 2022's rate. The ILO also warned that an economic slowdown will “force more workers to accept lower quality, poorly paid jobs which lack job security and social protection, so accentuating inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.”

Demand for HR talent was already visible before COVID-19. In the age of AI, the human side of human resources still matters. “The fact that you still have that need to have someone in there that can have that interpersonal relationship, and that kind of skillset, means that it's one of those jobs that's still going very well and even growing, because it's not being taken over by the robots,” says Deakin University's Dr. Huw Flatau-Harrison.

Remote work and AI adoption are also expanding IT services, especially in Kyrgyzstan, Portugal, and Romania, where the sector is hiring well above the global rate. Cloud software, productivity tools, and automation sit behind a projected 5.5% rise in worldwide IT spending in 2023 versus the prior year. If you are targeting those markets, pair industry research with a clear picture of how competitive each city is before you relocate.

Which industry is hiring the most people in the United States?

Restaurants. On LinkedIn, 7.86% of U.S. ads were in the restaurant trade as of June 2023, with a further 4.07% in hospitality — in a market that still had 1.6 vacancies per unemployed person and about 17,000 jobs added in leisure and hospitality in the Labor Department report covering that period.

Those listings track America's return to eating out. In January, sales at food and drink venues rose 7.2% from December and 25.2% versus January 2022, according to government data. Chipotle announced plans to hire 15,000 restaurant staff quickly and highlighted promotion paths — a direct response to restaurant work's reputation for being difficult and low-waged.

Hospitality demand is most distinctive in Las Vegas. California cities account for a disproportionate share of U.S. IT vacancies. Raleigh, North Carolina, stands out for higher education: it is the sector with the most notable hiring figures there, and teachers received an average 4.2% raise after a 2022 state budget rethink. More recently, North Carolina removed the college-degree prerequisite from many government job descriptions to fill a large pipeline of public-sector vacancies.

Restaurant and hospitality applications still compete on speed and presentation. A focused cover letter that names the venue type, shift flexibility, and guest-facing skills will outperform a generic food-service dump of duties. If you are weighing several openings, decide whether the role is worth applying for before you spend a full evening on forms.

Which industry is hiring the most people in Canada?

Hospitals and Health Care. That sector accounts for 14.82% of Canadian LinkedIn ads — roughly twice (or more) the volume of each remaining industry in the top ten except retail, which is close behind. Unemployment has stayed near an all-time low, and long-term unemployment has fallen as pandemic leavers return, even as tightness has begun to ease with interest-rate adjustments.

“There is mounting evidence that the extreme tightness of the Canadian job market is easing and, if inflation cooperates, suggests that the case for the Bank of Canada moving to the sidelines is now very strong,” wrote Bank of Montreal Chief Economist Douglas Porter in a note to clients.

Unfilled healthcare vacancies have doubled since the end of 2019. That shortage can feed on itself: new hires walk into a workforce described as demoralized and tired, with heavy overtime, sick leave, and burnout. If you are entering care roles, put licenses, unit types, and measurable patient-load or quality metrics on the first page of your nursing or clinical resume.

Retail in Quebec remains uneven, with a surplus of jobs that has pushed employers to raise wages by 12–39% since 2016. Teenagers have historically filled many of those shifts, but in Quebec that age group is resisting part-time work to protect study time and avoid extra hours. A new government bill aims to let younger teens work legally while limiting what employers can demand. Only two retailers — IKEA and Sephora — made Canada's top 50 employers list at Forbes in the year of this research.

Which industry is hiring the most people in the United Kingdom?

Construction. Nearly one in ten UK LinkedIn ads (9.22%) sit in that sector, in a labor market the Financial Times described as offering workers strength through near-record wage growth and low unemployment. Employment reached a record high of 33.1 million in February–April, even as strikes and unrest were tied to the cost of living, the economic costs of leaving the EU, and a government whose authority had been “whittled away by recent scandals.”

“Britain's construction industry has long battled worker shortages,” according to the Guardian, “but Brexit has worsened the gaps as EU citizens can no longer come to work in the UK without visas as before.” Perception is another barrier. A survey found “across the UK there are big misconceptions around earning potential, job prospects and working conditions,” according to Caroline Gumble, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Building — including the belief that construction pay is lower than it actually is.

Outside London, law is the stand-out sector for job availability in Birmingham, Leeds, and Liverpool. One Hampshire firm that expanded into Liverpool pointed to a strong North West property market: “The North West property market is strong, and the growth is rapidly exceeding other cities in the south.” Efforts to widen working-class representation among UK lawyers may also be lifting demand for talent beyond traditional pipelines. Site and trades candidates can lean on a civil engineering or construction-adjacent resume example to show project scale, safety records, and tickets rather than a vague list of tools.

Which industry is hiring the most people in Australia?

Government Administration, at 11.60% of LinkedIn ads. Together with Staffing and Recruiting and Hospitals and Health Care, just three sectors account for over 30% of advertised jobs. Employment has stayed strong as the market recovered from COVID-19, growing by 35,600 employees per month since August 2022, even while new-job creation lags and vacancies remain high.

Public-sector hiring coincides with a review of alleged “jobs for mates culture” at the top. “We know that half of the Productivity Commission's board members have a political connection to the Coalition and the administrative appeals tribunal was stacked with appointments with clear Liberal party links,” says Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher. The departure of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison also opened roles after it was revealed that he secretly held five additional ministerial portfolios while leading the country.

Mining does not crack the national top ten, but it is booming locally — especially in Brisbane, where it is the stand-out job for availability. The work has a mixed reputation: firms offer six-figure wages for tough manual roles that take people away from home for weeks in conditions many workers decline. The number of women in these roles has also risen as pay and perception have shifted. If you are making a larger industry switch, combine this demand map with a career-change plan so the resume tells a coherent story, not just a hotspot chase.

Should you switch industries, relocate, or reshape the job you have?

Use this data as a demand signal, not a command. Openings that dominate LinkedIn today can look different in a year, especially in a post-pandemic market that is still absorbing AI tools. Not everyone can or should move cities or sectors when a role feels empty.

Sometimes the better move is to find meaning in the job you already have by naming what drains you and reconnecting with colleagues and clients. Alongside quiet quitting, the Great Resignation, and the Great Reshuffle sits job shaping: gradually shifting your duties toward work that uses your strengths and quietly dropping tasks that do not. If you stay, document those new responsibilities so your next raise or promotion conversation has evidence. If you leave, treat high-vacancy industries as markets where a specific, in-demand skill still has to match the posting.

For a second view of where applications pile up fastest, see our analysis of the most competitive American companies for job seekers and the global city-by-city competition rankings.

How was this hiring-industry study conducted?

We focused on job markets worldwide and the most populated cities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. For each location we identified (1) the industry hiring the most people by share of LinkedIn ads and (2) the industry most uniquely popular relative to other locations.

We retrieved the number of job ads on LinkedIn's job search engine overall and for each industry, then calculated which industry had the highest proportion of ads in each location. To find uniquely popular hiring, we isolated the industry with the highest local percentage of ads versus the global average for that industry.

The final analysis only considers countries with 300 or more job listings. The data for this research is correct as of August 2023.

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Frequently asked questions

What industry is hiring the most people in the U.S. right now in this study?

Restaurants, at 7.86% of LinkedIn job ads as of June 2023, with hospitality adding another 4.07%. That mix matches a leisure sector still rebuilding after the pandemic, not a claim that restaurant work is easy to staff or well paid everywhere.

What does “uniquely popular” hiring mean?

It is the industry whose share of local job ads exceeds the global average for that industry by the largest margin. A sector can dominate ads in many countries and still not be uniquely popular in a given city if that dominance is typical worldwide.

Is Staffing and Recruiting really hiring everywhere?

It is the sector doing the most hiring in the most countries in this dataset (28 countries), tied with IT Services and IT Consulting. That reflects demand for people who fill other roles — including recruiters themselves — not a promise that every HR posting is remote-friendly or senior-level.

Should I move to a city just because one industry is advertising heavily?

Not by itself. High vacancy counts can signal burnout, low pay, visa gaps, or rapid turnover. Cross-check cost of living, licensing, and whether the work is sustainable before you relocate, and match your resume to the actual postings rather than the map label.

How current is this LinkedIn hiring data?

The LinkedIn counts used here are correct as of August 2023, with several U.S. labor-market figures referenced as of June 2023. Treat the maps as a snapshot of advertised demand in that window, then verify live listings before you apply.