Tech talent crunch in 2020 likely to go up to 200,000

New Delhi: A shortage of employees skilled in technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, Internet of Things, cybersecurity and data analytics that India is facing would become acute next year, say recruitment experts.If the shortage was in thousands in 2019, it is going to be up to 2 lakh in 2020, according to estimates by headhunters such as TeamLease, Randstad, Magna Infotech and ABC Consultants. The demand for new tech talent is across all sectors, as businesses become digitised and automated. 73002720 “…for every skilled candidate in technologies like digital, data and analytics, AI, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, etc., there are about three companies who have a role to offer in their organisations,” said Ratna Gupta, a senior director at ABC Consultants.Vijay Sivaram, the chief executive of Magna Infotech, concurred with this view, saying that there were plenty of opportunities for those skilled in new technologies, at a time when the economy is slowing down and most IT employees are facing job insecurities.The estimated demand in 2020 would be 4.4 lakh for new-age tech professionals, while the supply is projected to be 2.4 lakh, according to Team-Lease Services.The profiles in demand include information security analysts, cloud engineers, network analysts, cybersecurity experts, digital transformation consultants, data governance experts, digital marketing specialist, data scientists, blockchain developers and AI specialists.“The shortage would increase to 2 lakh by 2020, thus pushing up the (salary) hikes from 35% to 60%, and some outliers will even command 100%-plus in certain skills like data science and ML (machine learning) in 2020,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, a co-founder of TeamLease.The shortage is creating a vacuum for the companies who fail to get the candidate with the required skills. This is resulting in a delay in closing the job postings with almost 50% of the demand going unfulfilled, said Sivaram of Magna Infotech.It is the new-age companies and startups that are luring the tech talent with over 100% salary jumps.It took two months for Bharatpe to close its search for a chief technology officer who was offered a twofold jump in fixed salary. “It is difficult to get tech talent especially with new technologies know-how,” said Ashneer Grover the chief executive and cofounder of Bharatpe.There is another recent example of a global in-house centre (GIC) offering a 100% jump in salaries to attract cybersecurity professionals from the Big 4 professional services companies. “This GIC was setting up its cybersecurity arm for the first time and they were behind the deadline,” said the founder of a search firm who did not wish to be named.“The talent skilled in new technologies are providing breakthrough gains and transformation for companies across sectors, especially given the current crisis pervasive across all sectors,” said Suresh Raina, the managing partner at Hunt Partners.Hunt Partners, which conducts searches for CXOs, is struggling with the limited talent pool at the top as the demand from traditional sectors like manufacturing, pharma, BFSI and consumer has been on a rise.“Our customers are keen on embracing the new technologies in their business operations … hence many roles in new technologies are in high demand but the supply for many new-age digital skills is limited,” said Suresh Bethavandu, a vice president and the global head of talent acquisition at Cognizant.The IT services firm is hiring talent for cloud, data, digital engineering and IoT.“To stay ahead in the war for talent and build a digitally skilled workforce, Cognizant expects to increase hiring from colleges in 2020, continue to go all out for experienced talent skilled in digital technologies and expand our pool of digital talent via our reskilling and upskilling programmes,” said Bethavandu.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2rD0fcg