In a piece of news that will come as a good tiding to all of the IT sector, Indian tech behemoths Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys have paced up their hiring in the emerging tech sector manifold. According to numbers released by a noted business magazine, TCS has increased their hiring in IT by 377% and Infosys by 642%.
This development comes as a positive change, especially after several IT companies handed out pink slips in 2017-18 as a result of lack of projects, increase in automation and migration to cloud computing, among others.
Reportedly, these IT giants have stopped the mass hiring and have focussed on employing niche candidates who have expertise in artificial intelligence, blockchain, data mining and analytics, among others.
Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, managing partner, Multiversal Advisory, told the magazine, “It’s the more cutting edge that is getting to be in demand. The focus is on data sciences, AI, internet of things, analytics and user experience design for products, etc. Much of the IT business gained has a stronger high-tech flavour — and includes this as part of the high-end offering but the talent is still hard to get. So these skills are going to be highly in demand across IT firms.”
2019 has seen overall growth in the number of jobs in analytics and data science ecosystem with India contributing to 6% of open job openings worldwide. According to a study by Analytics India Magazine, the total number of analytics and data science job positions available is 97,000. Out of these, 97% of the openings in India are on a full-time basis while 3% are part-time or contractual.
The IT majors are now also helping their staff to be future-ready. Companies have initiated multiple internal training in the digital technology space for its employees.
Our study titled Analytics And Data Science Jobs In India 2019 – By Great Learning & AIM had found out that there is a whole section of employees who are on a path for lifelong learning approach to skills development. As leading institutes respond to the rising demand for analytics skills with tailored programs, skills development programs will play a critical role in updating the analytics capabilities and preparing the workforce for new roles.
With the continued lack of talent plaguing the technology sector in India, the acqui-hiring trend has taken off in popularity in India and the country is seeing big tech firms snapping up data science consulting firms in a bid to bolster their bench strength. In addition to this, companies are increasingly looking inwards to identify whether they have the talent to capitalise on new opportunities that can reshape the nature of the industry.
Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO, Head Hunters India, told a noted daily, “The market is definitely better off this year when compared to the last one… Also, with this hiring numbers, companies are showing that they have confidence in the near future and this is an effort to beef up the bench.”
As the IT sector evolves and emerging tech like data analytics, AI and IoT become more entrenched across domains, organisations and high-growth startups are going on a hiring spree. However, the market continues to be employer-driven and finding the right talent is a growing challenge for organisations and startups. On the skill side, as more companies bolster their analytics capabilities, they are aggressively hiring professionals with sound technical knowledge. A key takeaway is that the analytics and data science talent supply will not be able to keep pace with job growth. In other words, there isn’t enough analytics talent and organisations will continue to face hiring challenges.
