2020 was about as kind to LinkedIn as it was to the rest of us. Over the course of 2020, LinkedIn's total network size actually decreased from 448M members in 2020 to 428M in 2021. On a more positive note, there were some changes to the top 10 industries, as well as 1 new industry added to the list!
But before we get to that, a bit of history for those of you that may be new to the rankings. LinkedIn requires all of its members to declare which of their 148 industry codes best categorizes their professional activity. You are required to do this first as a new member to the platform, and then you can subsequently change your industry code as you like. The codes have evolved over the years and different industries have risen and fallen in popularity, but the fact that LinkedIn allows us to search for profiles by industry makes it an the world's most powerful tool for selling and job hunting, and allows us to understand a bit more about the evolutions of the world's professions.
In this post, we'll once again perform our annual duty of zooming into the market share of the top 10 industries on LinkedIn and then we'll share the full list of LinkedIn's 148 industries (sorted from largest to smallest). All of this data was extracted from LinkedIn in January 2021.
The Top 10 Industries on LinkedIn
As of January 2021, LinkedIn has slightly over 428 million individual accounts (down from 448 million in 2020) with the top 10 industries comprising 27% of all profiles on the network (the top 25 industries comprise over 52% of all profiles).
The top 10 industries are:
Information Technology & Services
Hospital & Health Care
Construction
Retail
Education Management
Financial Services
Accounting
Computer Software
Higher Education
Automotive
Higher Education is making it's first top 10 appearance, jumping up 2 spots to secure #8 overall. Automotive dropped 1 spot in the rankings to #10 overall. Last year's #10, Marketing & Advertising, dropped 2 spots and now sits at #12.
Here's how the entire network breaks down visually:
Source: SAGE
LinkedIn Industries List
In late 2020, LinkedIn added 1 new industry - Mobile Gaming. There were no other changes to the industries besides that.
Here is the list of all 148 LinkedIn industries ranked from largest to smallest:
So, How Can You Use This Information To Grow Your Business?
If you're trying to develop a sales or marketing prospecting campaign targeting specific LinkedIn industries but you're not sure how to get started or just need help optimizing your campaign, check out our Data-Driven Prospecting course or get in touch to see how we can help you use LinkedIn industries to generate more leads for your business!