Demand for IT Professionals: After the Biggest Recession of the Era
Demand for IT Professionals in the Last Decade was Increasing Rapidly
2010 to 2020 has been a year of remarkable disruptions for those even remotely connected to the tech industry across the globe, and majorly in the first world economies. Some of the most life-changing innovations have surfaced, and businesses, employees, and customers have all witnessed the impacts in different ways. Business processes have evolved, performance tools have improved, and even technological products have started to make a huge difference in the lives of end consumers.
The last decade has provided access to cutting edge software systems, work trends have shifted to remote working patterns, the cybersecurity landscape has become more threatening, and the role of AI-based solutions in business and consumer products have a converged impact on the outlook of the tech industry. Here are a few details about these trends, believed to be major pivotal factors in shaping up a favorable job market for IT professionals.
Cloud Computing growth
The rise of cloud-based software is by far the most noticeable breakthrough in the world of technology last decade. More commonly understood as SaaS (Software as a Service), cloud computing today is an essential part of almost all modern businesses, be it small or large. The fact the SaaS market has grown to more than ten times, from $10 billion to more than $100 billion, the growth, the acceptance, and the benefits are quite evident.
Remote Work – Quadrupled
The innovations in the genre of mobile and computer devices, along with the widespread internet access has helped remote work become a new, highly effective trend of working. When paired with the facility of cloud, it is very much understood that the tech-based businesses have found this bunch of options a blessing, since now they can find and work with talent across the globe. The freelance business has also toppled with project outsourcing the new normal for many businesses on the track of bootstrapping. In 2010, the US Census Bureau found that only 9.5% of people work remotely at least once per week. Compared to today, the same number was found out to be 33% in a survey we conducted. Remote work has created opportunities for individuals who have talent but somehow could grab opportunities at a larger scale.
Data Security
Looking at the last decade, data breaches on business and personal levels have increased many folds. Ransomware, DDoS attacks, spear-phishing and other types of cyberthreats have all led to organizations suffering the loss of data and highly critical information. That is why data security has become one of the prime concerns at business as well as individual levels. Hence, the rise in demand for cybersecurity professionals. According to a survey, 60% of organizations are providing data security training at the employee level so that the employee touchpoints can be secured, and data is safe even in remote working environments.
Covid-19 Recession: A Huge Blow to the Job Market
This Covid-19 recession is now considered to be the biggest recession, surpassing the great recession of 2008. Wiping out millions of jobs in the US, its repercussions have reached not only hospitality and travel but also sports, entertainment, retail, construction, and manufacturing. Early May numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics tell us the jobs lost in the US alone crossed the 20 million huge figure. According to a report by Trading Economics, over 47 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits amid coronavirus pandemic, far more than the number of the Great Recession of 2008. The government has already released the compensation and support programs for different industries, and President Trump has signed a generous $2 trillion federal rescue package that will support small and medium businesses to aid their survival.
COVID-19 Impact on Different Industries
Since it now an understood fact that this virus has brought far more adverse effects on the economy than the Great Recession of 2008, almost every industry is hurt in one way or another. To give you a fair idea about how industries have been hurt, here is an impact index chart by Statista.
The largest hit sectors are manufacturing, travel, transportation, and retail. There are five measures on which the virus has impacted in each industry, add the numbers 1-5 show the severity of impact on each measure.
Job Posting Comparison February vs. March 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the economies hard, and this state has been said several times by many analytics and statistic information platforms. That obviously means the trend in increase or decrease in job postings also got hurt severely. While the impact is continuous since the start of this disturbance, the stats also keep changing. By the time you read this, the numbers might even go worse until the silver lining shines out, maybe at the end of this year.
Job posting platforms like Indeed and Glassdoor have also been providing information about how the recruitment needs have changed, and how various sectors’ forecasted postings did not have in account this outburst. We took a look at the data from Glassdoor, where job postings from the first two months were compared with how it all drastically changed in March when this pandemic was recognized with its complete severity and possible consequences.
The report from Glassdoor suggests that the job postings had been rising in the first two months in various sectors, very close to the forecasted numbers. January and February maintained an average of 1.2% increase week over week, until the last week of February, after which there was a sudden stoop, and the increase converted into a decrease of around 1.2% in one week, followed by a 1.5% decrease next week. As daunting as these figures might seem, it is a hard truth we all need to swallow. Lay-offs, business closures, stay-at-home orders, economic crises, and multiple other factors have contributed to the downfall of jobs.
In normal times, when there is a pattern of decline in job postings, it is followed by a spike right after. This situation, however, is not normal, and the spike seems to be reaching us in a considerable amount of time right now. At the industry level, however, the picture is different for major industries. Let’s discuss what some of the major job providing industries are telling us, the time of analysis is the second week of March:
Travel and Tourism
The one industry that has taken the mightiest hit from the pandemic. The biggest reason, the infamous Stay Home Stay Safe slogan that is being chanted across the globe to prevent the outbreak. -17.7% change means week over week job posting have decreased by this number.
Arts and Entertainment
Job openings here accounted for a -4.6% change in job postings, which means a decline since it is negative.
Restaurants & Bars, and Retail
-1% for restaurants and bars, while for the retail industry, it was -1.3%. Both negative, both were showing a decline.
Manufacturing
-0.6% is again a negative, and shows a decline in the job posting, since labor is asked to stay home, and factories are mostly closed.
Transportation and Logistics
One of the industries showing a positive outlook with a rebound in demand due to increased patterns of e-commerce engagement from end consumers, the change from last week is +12.9 %, which means people are needed in the jobs to fulfill the deliveries.
Tech Industries
Tech industries remain relatively flat, with a +0.5% increase in job postings. Although the effects on the giants have also been noticeable, tech companies have been those taking the most advantage of remote working. There is another factor to consider here, and that is the increasing business of the freelance world. Since now, the permanent hiring process seems to be riskier, costlier, and more time taking, outsourcing projects from resources across the globe seems a better option.
Job Posting Comparison April 2019 vs. April 2020
For a year on year comparison between the job postings, we turned to Indeed for their research and data. It is widely understood that the numbers will be bad. Until mid-April, the trend of job postings was 30.8 % lower than in 2019. To a huge extent, the most hurt industries are also quite well understood. For the sake of a clearer picture, and to see which industry might get out of this downfall sooner, here’s an industry-wise analysis with percentage decrease in job postings in April 2020, compared to April 2019.
Hospitality and Tourism
One of the two industries witnessing the downfall below 50% compared to 2019, and the worst downfall among all other industries. Indeed.com tells us a whopping -62% change in the job postings, which is massive if compared to any other industry.
Childcare
Second worse condition is faced by this industry, almost 10% better than Hospitality, but still below the 50% mark. Childcare faces a change of -52.5% in job postings the same month last year.
Arts and Entertainment
This industry is facing severe effects too, with a change of -46.7% in job postings, very close to the -50% mark.
Banking and Finance
Only 10% better than the one above, this sector has faced a change of -35.8% change in new openings compared to the same period last year.
Loading and Stocking
Very close to Banking and Financing, this sector shows a change of -34.9% compared to April 2019.
Software Development
One of the three industries hurt the least, two of which are pretty much expected, Software Development saw a change of -26% in job openings compared to what we saw last year. Since E-commerce has taken a rise, and now is a far better opportunity to bring people to notice you on the web, software development to cater to the needs of post-pandemic consumers is the new normal for many.
Nursing and Pharmacy
Nursing has had a hit of around -23.7%, a fall in job postings only worse than Pharmacy that has witnessed a change of -15.3%, least of all other industries.
IT Professionals Demand
In contrast with the downward trend of overall national hiring, these top ten Tech job roles have seen a whopping 30% increase in the job postings. Top five job postings have seen an average of 40% increase in job postings, and the top job role with the highest increase in listings is a WordPress Developer with an astounding rate of 73.62%. Take a look at all the jobs and their percentage increase in postings:
WordPress Developer: 73.62%
Systems Integration Engineer: 66.17%
SAS Programmer: 31.98%
Senior Technical Lead: 25.44%
SAP ABAP Developer: 22.82%
Database Engineer: 17.31%
Software Engineering Manager: 16.85%
Senior Architect: 16.19%
Field Application Engineer: 16.13%
Ruby on Rails Developer: 16.02%
All this is making a lot of sense since most of the businesses are shifting to digital, and adopting a digital presence is the first step, WordPress developers are required by almost every business. Those who are hurt less and want to recover fast and even those who are waiting for favorable times to start operating, are looking for a decent web presence in hopes of winning the post-pandemic era.
Demand impacted for Fresh Graduates to Get in the IT Sector
The pandemic has hit almost every industry, and the technology sector has been no different. Although it has been one of those industries that have been affected the least, it isn’t completely safe from the blow. According to a survey by Indeed.com, 54% of 2020 graduates feel they will be facing a tough time in finding a job post-graduation.
For IT graduates, things aren’t as bad as other industries. Since the IT sector is still on the move with remote working carrying things ahead, many large-scale tech corporations are on a break with their fresh graduates’ induction policies. It is evident that the only industry to bounce back in the shortest amount of time is the technology industry, with e-commerce acceptance already on the rise, cloud-based solutions and processes still on the move with the help of remote work, and a lot of freelance work coming as an opportunity to save permanent resources costs.
While it is not easy to wait for the right time, it is the right way. Since time is of the essence, and these times are hard for almost everyone, professional development seems to be the right way of using this time. The economy will bounce back, the companies will start hiring again, and the best strategy right now is to get prepared for the competition you might face once the jobs postings are back to normal.
Polishing skills with IT certifications and getting into IT consultancy is also a great idea to be starting something of your own. You can learn how to market yourself once you have acquired some top demand skills and can start approaching clients for project-based work. This will give you hands-on experience while preparing you for jobs at the best IT corporations.
Are Unemployed Tech Professionals Getting Interviews
To provide you an overview of how the tech industry is shaping up in terms of jobs, we performed a survey among people in the tech industry. This will further tell you the candid experienced IT professionals have faced after the pandemic and its dire effects. From a set of 1000 participants, 44% were in the early years of their careers, 41% were from the mid-level of their careers, and 14% were C-level or towards the end of their careers.
According to this survey, 64 percent of correspondents believed tech professionals are getting interviews. They also expressed their concerns about the increasing competition since the market is saturated and a lot of people have been laid off too. The other 36 percent believed not all the professionals are getting interview calls, because new jobs are lesser than the number of professionals laid off.
Are Tech Jobs Recession Proof
The same survey reflected 62% of the respondents saying Yes to this question, with a few facts backing their answer. They believed tech organizations are operating and will be the quickest to hire back again, and in the mean-time, professionals can upskill to come back in action stronger and more skilled. 38% of respondents still thought that even the tech jobs aren’t recession-proof since the pandemic has hit almost every industry.
In a nutshell, tech jobs are the least vulnerable at this point, because of the numerous opportunities popping up for some of the specialized tech professions. As shared above, ten different roles in the tech world have seen a rise in demand in these times. WordPress developers have seen the highest number of job postings; cloud architect roles have risen in demand after the remote working has gone up multiple folds, database engineers, and some programming language professionals are also in the hot zone.
How Should I Address the IT Skills-Gap
IT Skills gap has been an issue pre-COVID19 era. The rising demand for tech professionals in fields like cybersecurity, cloud computing, data science, and web development have made it difficult for recruiters to get the right talent to the right companies. Why was it difficult for companies to hold the talent, because big corporations are paying a lot more than small and medium businesses, and since there had been a shortage, it is extremely difficult to retain talented employees if they aren’t treated the way large corporations treat them.
Now the time is different. Many small businesses and even SMBs have laid off some very talented professionals. There can be expected a pile of CVs in the systems of established IT companies, and even more difficult to reach that position since the influx can be more than five times the normal amount. In these hard times, some strategies can be worked upon to secure a decent future. Here are a few tips you can take advantage of, and prepare yourself for the future
Learn In-Demand IT Skills
There is a whole world to explore in the world of distance learning. You can prepare yourself with the skills that are hottest in terms of demand. They can include Cloud Computing, Data Science, Cybersecurity, and Web Development. QuickStart is an IT workforce readiness and career development/enhancement platform. It provides IT certification training preparation and knowledge enhancing courses with the help of various learning modalities, including self-paced learning, virtual instructor-led classes, live sessions with instructors and industry experts, practice labs, social learning and much more. You can choose from a library of 900+ courses and get skilled in any of the fields mentioned above.
QuickStart also offers personalization for candidates by assessing their present skills and mapping their skills with the career or business goals that candidates define. The platform is AI-based and can throw the most suitable content for learning to help achieve their goals.
Take Advantage of Learned Skills by Freelancing and IT Consultancy
Since every small and medium business is running after cost-cutting, freelancing is a great option to earn some running cash. Web presence is of utmost importance at the moment, and web development skills can be brought to use for your web presence building, and also for potential clients. You can offer services of your field at lower costs and build your audience. Nothing can work better as a marketing tool than word of mouth in these times, but you need to deliver quality that speaks for itself.
You will have work harder than what you will be paid, but as the saying goes, “Those who work more than they are paid will soon be paid more than the work they do’. It’s all about your approach, your tireless struggle to find work and your honesty to deliver quality work
Learn Digital Marketing to Show Yourself
Digital Marketing can come handy when you want to present yourself to people digitally. Since everyone today is tech-savvy, and their escape is social media after every short while. Learn how to optimize your profiles on suitable platforms and give some time to create content around your services. Ideas will be needed to make yourself pop out, but this is a great skill to learn. Once you know how to create content, how to advertise, and how to grab the niche, you can also provide consultancy in that area. Best of all, you can work your digital marketing skills to get yourself noticed to people.
Every step you take today is a chance you will have to take. But sitting idle and doing nothing can bring you no good. So, enough thinking about stuff and now it’s the time to be doing something. Head to QuickStart.com and go for the LITE version that is free of cost. Get a taste of online learning and AI-based platform, and subscribe for Learn subscription when you have your career goals aligned in your mind.