I’ve been getting a bit curious about the industries on LinkedIn and the ratio of people within those industries. There is no easy way to get a summary of this information and LinkedIn’s own Advanced Search feature returns idiosycratic results, as I’ll explain below.

What we do know:

• 2 new members join LinkedIn every second (Source LinkedIn Blog: Thanking All of Our Valued LinkedIn Members [INFOGRAPHIC], 7 February 2013)
• Globally: 225,000.000 members currently advertised total members (Source LinkedIn About Us page, 26 August 2013)
• Australia specific: 4,000,000 as at BRW article 4 million members and counting: LinkedIn Australia finds connections get you places (14 March 2013).
• As at today’s date (29 August) if I search for 1st, 2nd, 3rd degree connections and group members located in Australia there are 4,362,980 results returned (up from 4,362,553 on the 26 August)

Search results, idiosyncratic?

The search results do seem to be idiosyncratic and buoyant. I have identified a couple of reasons for that so far:

Depends on the time

It is a little hard to drill down to exact numbers when the numbers are a moving target thanks to a growth rate of 2 new members every second.

This means:

• 120 new members every minute
• 7,200 new members every hour
• 172.800 new members every day

With no easily available way of drilling down into what’s available right now, at this time in each industry, for each location I am interested in (Global, Australia, Western Australia), the day/month/interval between searching can be critical in terms of the search results displayed.

It took me ~3 days to compile the totals for each industry used in this post – from the time I started to the time I completed, the amount of members on LinkedIn would have grown by over half a million (~518,400), based on the growth rate published in February this year.

Depends on LinkedIn Advanced Search functionality

Although we know there should be ~225,000,000 members on LinkedIn, getting to a search result where you see that data is…difficult.

LinkedIn does restrict the functionality available in the Advanced Search option:

• the default appears to only search 1st degree connections, 2nd degree connections, group members that are located in/near your location
• you can select “3rd degree connections + everyone else” provided you filter by another search option, e.g. location or industry

Based on filtering by location “Australia, 4,357,514 results are returned as at 11.04pm 29 August 2014, but my last search about 30 minutes ago retrieved 4,362,980, so exact figures are buoyant and it does not appear to be possible to see the total amount of members on LinkedIn.

What Industries?

Assuming that filtering by industry and ensuring that 1st degree connections, 2nd degree connections, group members and 3rd degree connections & everyone else will retrieve as complete set of search results as possible, I spent my spare time across 3 days from 27 August to now (29 August 2013) searching in the 147 industries to see what results are retrieved.

As at 27-29 August 2013, you can refine LinkedIn’s Advanced Search by 147 industries, with the following results for locations:

Total of search results displayed (Member profiles retrieved in search)

Note that when summed, the total results as based on search results by industry is different to the published total for both All and Australia.

I could never get to the point where I was presented with 225,000,000 search results. While I could get to the point where I could see 4,362,980 results for Australia (which correlated with the BRW article in March 2013 + an allowance for growth in the 5 months since), when I searched by industry, the numbers never aligned.

Method used for each industry total was the same:

Screen shot of LinkedIn Advanced Search screen with initial filter fields highlighted (Taken 30 August 2013)

1. Advanced search
2. Select Industry
3. Ensure all 4 Relationship options selected: 1st degree connections, 2nd degree connections, group members and 3rd degree connections & everyone else
4. Set Location Anywhere
5. Search
6. Record figure
7. Add location Australia
8. Record figure
9. Add location Western Australia
10. Record figure

Screen shot of LinkedIn Advanced Search screen with location filter fields selected (Taken 30 August 2013)

While growth across industries was >500,000 in the time I searched (assuming LinkedIn growth rate as published in February 2013 was steady), I searched across locations for each industry at a time so the figures within the industry and locations should be relatively consistent (give or take the idiosyncracies of the search).

Results as a percentage of results for that location

Looking at the available industry total of member profiles within a location, as a percentage of the overall total (result data in table above):

Notes and further thoughts

1) There is a difference between available search results and published results:

• Global results: 225,000,000 is 48% more than the search results I was able to achieve by drilling down within the preset industries and locations in the Advanced Search screen
• Australia results: 4,362,980 is 49% more than the search results I was able to achieve by drilling down within the preset industries and locations in the Advanced Search screen

The difference is more than the estimated growth across the time period that I collated these search results.

The difference could be explained in terms of people not selecting an industry (although that would mean that 49% of Australians had not selected an industry when filling in their LinkedIn profile), however without an easy way to see “all”, or “people who have not selected an industry” it will be hard to verify.

2) Subjective selection of location

There is significant room for interpretation between individuals at location. I noted in my searching that there instances of subjective location selection.

Some of my connections – who I do know are Western Australian (they are living and working in WA) – do not show up when I filter down to Western Australia, but are showing when locations are all, or filtered to Australia.

It’s possible that:

• they are not identifying as “Western Australian”,
• that location is an aspirational choice, or
• their profession may not be one that is dependent on their physical location

With that in mind, the results for I retrieved for Western Australia may not be fully reflective of actual bodies in Western Australia who have a LinkedIn account.

This also means a scan of members by location is not comprehensive or completely reflective of the representation from that location on LinkedIn because, for a variety of reasons, individuals may be identifying with another location (e.g. a more general location) when creating/updating their LinkedIn profile.

3) Subjective selection of industry

There is significant room for interpretation between individuals at industry level. I noted in my searching that there were very subjective selections of industry by members rather than a standardised approach.

This is possibly due to:

• Selective interpretation of the Industry, e.g. Program Development vs Software Development
  • Ambiguous definition available for it and/or
  • Lack of benchmarking prior to selecting that industry
• Intended career goals and/or career focus, e.g.
  • Two researchers both in Exercise & Health Sciences area but one has selected their industry as “Research”, the other as “Health, Wellness and Fitness”
• People working in the industry may identify with the industry of their employer (Higher Education) rather than their actual job function (Human Resources) when selecting their industry
• People may be making aspirational choices about their industry (selecting the element of their current role that they wish to pursue further in a professional sense).

The latter got me thinking about a taxonomy for the industry people select on LinkedIn:clearly it is very subjective. For example:

• I align myself with the Marketing and Advertising industry (I am most interested in working in Online/Digital), but a review of my peers show that some identify their industry as “Education Management”, or “Higher Education” and others “Marketing and Advertising”
• A separate review of people in another equivalent position, revealed that they had separately identified their primary industries as “International Affairs”, “Marketing and Advertising” or “Higher Education”

This also means a scan of members by industry is not comprehensive or completely reflective of the representation from that industry on LinkedIn because, for a variety of reasons, individuals may be identifying with another industry when creating/updating their LinkedIn profile.