GE is the “world’s most sought-after” industrial employer among LinkedIn’s 175 million global members, according to a new survey released yesterday by the social and professional networking site. GE placed sixth overall as the most in-demand global company, behind Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Unilever, but ahead of IBM, Procter & Gamble, Nike, Siemens, and Shell.
GE is also the fifth most in demand employer among students and recent graduates from around the world. Only Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook ranked ahead of the company.
LinkedIn analyzed “billions of data points between members and companies and compared the data with surveys of thousands of members to determine a company’s familiarity and engagement score. Our analysis also weighted member actions like viewing employee profiles, visiting company pages and following companies,” LinkedIn said. There are more than 2 billion companies from around the world active on the site.
GE employs 301,000 workers in over 100 countries, including 131,000 employees in the U.S. So far this year, GE hired 14,000 workers in the U.S. and the company has 5,400 job openings worldwide posted on its gecareers.com website. These jobs span many disciplines, from engineering and technology to sales, supply chain and financial services, human resources and legal. GE has also partnered with U.S. universities on research and academic programs and has been actively recruiting thousands of graduates and PhD candidates.
GE is also focusing on advanced manufacturing. U.S. companies estimate that there are about 600,000 open high-tech jobs waiting to be filled in the U.S., and more than 82 percent of manufacturers report they cannot find people to fill their skilled production jobs. One reservoir of untapped talent is military veterans. This week GE helped launch the Get Skills to Work coalition focused helping 15,000 veterans apply their military experience and skills to high-tech manufacturing jobs, like making planes or jet engines. The coalition is seeking additional partners to extend the assistance to 100,000 vets by 2015. “The need is obvious,” says Jeff Immelt, GE chairman and CEO. “The challenge is matching their skills to our job openings and getting them the right jobs.”
