Above, Steve Clemons, Washington editor at large for The Atlantic, interviews LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner at the Washington Ideas Forum.
“Jeff, I consider him as kind of the Wizard of Oz of jobs in the world, he knows which of you have updated your profile, who’s looking for a job.” Such was the introduction The Atlantic Washington Editor at Large Steve Clemons gave to LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner at the Washington Ideas Forum. And it’s true: Weiner’s work is a bit like magic. After all, it’s not too many who can unite nearly 400 million members of the global workforce.
During Clemons’ and Weiner’s conversation, the CEO delved into a variety of topics — everything from Steve Jobs’ managerial style, to which presidential candidates are most active on LinkedIn. But perhaps most insightful was Weiner’s discussion of how he intends to revolutionize the global workforce by matching all available jobs with skilled workers.
The crux of Weiner’s plan involves developing an Economic Graph: a digital map of the global economy that connects talent with opportunity.
There are six pillars to the Economic Graph, which include:
- Creating a LinkedIn profile for every member of the global workforce
- Creating a LinkedIn profile for every company
- Creating a digital representation on LinkedIn for every global job available
- Creating a LinkedIn profile for every university, higher education organization, and vocational training facility that makes it possible to acquire the skills necessary to fill available jobs
- Creating a publishing platform that allows every individual, company, and university to share professionally relevant knowledge
- Stepping back to allow intellectual, working, and human capital to flow to where it can best be leveraged to transform the global economy
Using city-scaled Economic Graphs, Weiner has established prototypes of his global vision in places like Chicago and New York City.
His latest venture is an initiative in partnership with the Markle Foundation to create economic opportunity in cities across the world through Rework America Connected, starting with targeting the unemployed in Arizona and Colorado. In partnership with edX, Arizona State University, the city of Phoenix, and the state of Colorado, the initiative works to identify ‘middle-skill opportunities’ — which Weiner describes as “jobs that require more than a secondary education but less than a four-year degree” — and then prepare workers to fill these roles through programs at vocational schools and community colleges.
Weiner hopes that these smaller ventures (‘smaller’ being a relative term) will lead to the fruition of his ultimate objective: employing the world’s workforce through leveraging the Economic Graph model.
Employing the entire global workforce may seem like an unfeasible goal, but if anyone can do it, it’s the Wizard of Oz of jobs.
