10 tech giants winning the talent war on LinkedIn

The 10 most sought-after U.S. companies that use LinkedIn to attract and retain talent are also technology pioneers. The professional social network says it analyzed billions of interactions between its 433 million users to rank the top companies based on the volume of job applicants, engagement between hiring companies and potential candidates, and employee retention. 

LinkedIn included only companies with more than 500 employees, and it based its ranking on interactions during the 12 months ending in February 2016. The company examined how often users viewed and applied for companies’ job postings, the number of non-employees that attempted to view job postings and connect with the hiring companies’ employees, and how long new employees stay on the job after they’re hired.

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A bona fide who’s who of the tech world and Silicon Valley dominated the top spots. (LinkedIn excluded itself from the list but included its owner-in-waiting, Microsoft, because the deal hasn’t closed, and the companies had no ties during the data-gathering period.)

The top 10 U.S. companies in LinkedIn’s new ranking:

1. Google.
2. Salesforce.
3. Facebook.
4. Apple.
5. Amazon.
6. Uber.
7. Microsoft.
8. Tesla.
9. Twitter.
10. Airbnb.

LinkedIn’s ‘top talent attractors’

The companies on LinkedIn’s “Top Attractors List” aren’t necessarily the best organizations to work for based on surveys or profits. Instead, they’re businesses at which people most eagerly want to land jobs and then remain there when they do, according to Suzy Welch, a journalist and TV commentator who advised LinkedIn on the project. The 40 companies included in the Top Attractors List employ about 1.6 million people, Welch wrote in a blog post.

Benefits and perks are important factors for the majority of professionals, but Welch said the companies at the top of LinkedIn’s ranking offer something that’s even more important. “The companies who top the charts here seem to reflect what so many of us feel in our bones just by living and working in today’s ever-changing and uncertain economy: people are hungry for jobs that give them meaning, purpose and a future,” Welch wrote. “At a time when no career can really be planned and no job is ever really secure, we seek opportunities that are the most likely to offer immediate impact, an energizing culture and a valuable credential.” 

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The U.S. technology industry comprises less than 10 percent of the American gross domestic product (GDP), but nearly half (45 percent) of the top 40 organizations on LinkedIn’s U.S. list are tech companies. “Though comparatively small and wildly competitive, the tech industry is the Shangri-la for workers of the world today,” Welch wrote.