ICT full-time job to increase 3.9% to 55.3 mn in 2020: IDC

Information and communications technology (ICT) full-time employment (FTE) will increase 3.9 percent to 55.3 million in 2020, according to IDC.

IDC expects full time job in the global ICT segment will maintain this pace of growth over the 2019-2023 forecast period, reaching more than 62.0 million in 2023 with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8 percent.

ICT job roles can be found in any industry, enterprise, or organization and are not related only to the ICT services, software, and hardware industries.

The largest role groups are the applications group, containing eight roles related to software development and management, the other IT/technical group, which includes five graphic, multimedia, and Web design roles, and the technical support group with five roles. Together, these three groups will account for roughly three quarters of all full time ICT jobs throughout the forecast.

IDC said the cybersecurity role group will see the fastest growth with a five-year CAGR of 9.6 percent while the other IT/technical role group will remain essentially flat with a 0.1 percent CAGR.

Three technology job roles will account for nearly one third of all ICT roles throughout the forecast: software developer/engineer, user support specialist, and systems analyst. The fastest growing roles will be data scientist (13.7 percent CAGR), machine learning design/development/engineer (13.6 percent CAGR), and data engineer (12.9 percent CAGR).

Digital transformation (DX)-related job roles focus on extracting and developing the value and utility of information, making business operations more responsive and effective, accelerating workforce transformation and optimization.

Non-DX job roles typically focus on less strategic activities and primarily help to support day-to-day operations. Today, DX roles make up 40 percent of technology jobs, but IDC expects this share to reach 52 percent by 2023.

Digital transformation technology investment is the driving force behind IT investment. The IT skill set needed to deliver DX projects is changing, with some of the fastest growing demand for IT roles centered around data and intelligence, said Craig Simpson, research manager, Customer Insights & Analysis Group.

“We are moving away from IT employees being focused around basic IT installation and maintenance roles and shifting toward roles that can build database architecture and functionality to derive intelligence and insights from an organization’s DX efforts,” Craig Simpson said.

Discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing and banking are expected to employ the most full time jobs for these digital transformational efforts, as they look to technology roles in areas like applications and technical support to design software and services to enhance the customer experience, Eileen Smith, program vice president in IDC’s Customer Insights & Analysis Group, said.

Meanwhile, Government of India will invest Rs 436 crore over a period of three years on Future Skills PRIME initiative.

Future Skills PRIME, which aims to upskill/reskill over 4 lakh IT professionals in emerging technologies, will be one of the largest government led digital skilling initiative globally.