Nearly 20% of established U.S. LinkedIn users have gone back and changed the title or description of a job after leaving it, according to a new NBER study examining how professional profiles change over time.
Researchers analyzed monthly Revelio Labs data from 2020 through 2026 and found that 19.7% of users made these retroactive edits, which were especially common among younger workers, technology employees and MBAs.
The changes typically happen about four years after workers leave a position and are closely tied to career moves. Workers who make these edits are more likely to change employers around the same period.
AI Is Showing Up In Workers’ Past Experience
The language workers use to describe previous jobs has also changed alongside the labor market.
The study found a sharp increase in AI-related language after 2022, while references to working from home and DEI have declined. Writing patterns associated with large language models also increased after ChatGPT emerged, particularly among less-educated workers and MBAs from lower-ranked programs.
The researchers say these changes reveal how workers adjust their professional profiles to reflect skills they believe are increasingly valuable.
LinkedIn Profiles Can Change The Data
The findings have implications beyond individual job searches. Economists increasingly use professional profiles to reconstruct employment histories and measure the availability of specific skills.
Because workers can revise descriptions of jobs years after leaving them, those profiles may not provide a fixed record of what skills were associated with a position at the time.
The edits can therefore introduce bias into labor-market research, while also providing a glimpse into how workers respond to changing employer demand.
