IT Industry is Expected to Add Around 2.5 Lakh New Jobs in 2019

Indian IT industry has witnessed major disruption over the past year, with successful adoption of emerging technologies. The industry has been on the cusp of profound change and hiring sentiments have improved across sectors.

The Indian IT industry is expected to add around 2.5 lakh new jobs in 2019 further contributing to the growth of the sector. While the ‘Digital India’ initiative has been one of the key contributing factors in the growth of IT, telecom and e-commerce sectors; some other reasons for the optimism in the IT industry have been increasing investments in digitization and automation as well as improvement in financial services and digital businesses. With so many companies embarking on digital transformations, business-IT hybrid roles will emerge to help organizations fulfil their evolving digital visions.

Furthermore, the demand in the IT sector has been quite positive the second half of 2018. Investment scenarios have become more conducive and more organizations are coming to play in the sector. In fact, the uptick in hiring is also because of the entry of new players in the sector. Another lookout for 2019 is the run-up to the launch of 5G services which will also increase jobs in technology.

Commenting on the growth of the jobs in the sector, Ms Alka Dhingra, General Manager, TeamLease Services said, “The overall job landscape in the IT sector will undergo radical changes over the next few years and certain job roles will continue to see increased demand. Some of the areas wherein positive growth in hiring is expected are computer, mathematical, architecture and engineering related fields. By 2020, about 2 million job additions are anticipated worldwide of which 13% increase will be in India itself. In fact, during the recent financial results, many IT firms have committed to increasing their workforce by 2020.”

Another potentially strong area of employment will be data analytics which is becoming increasingly crucial across multiple industries. By 2020, the demand for data analytics in sectors will continue to increase employment opportunities by 25%. Some prominent roles in demand are computer Software Developers, Information Security Analysts, Machine Learning, Mobility, Cloud Engineer, DevOps, Network Analyst and Cyber Security experts. “Health-Sciences and FinTech are two industries who are going to hire extensively for data analytics and machine learning”, added Ms. Dhingra.

Jobs roles addressing specific skill sets will continue to grow. Few skill areas where strong % job increase will be seen are:

• 25% increase in big data, business intelligence and analytics
• 23% increase in cloud computing SAAS
• 18% increase in mobility roles
• 15% increase in machine learning engineers
• 12% global content solutions

“Startups will be strong contributors in generating employment because of their expanded adoption of AI, Robotics, Blockchain and IoT. Addition of IT jobs are not just from technology firms but with changing world dynamics even non-technology firms will contribute to job growth due to the pervasion of digitization across sectors,” commented Ms. Dhingra.

The IT industry is also at the onset of momentous creative influx which is paving the way for increase in demand for product designers and specialized sales representatives required to meet the requirements of the dynamic changes across industries.

As the boost in employment opportunities will continue, it is also imperative for employers to keep in demand the skill deficit that India faces. There still is a mismatch between skills which candidates have versus the skills that are required to have in order to meet the demands of the industry. Companies need to take stronger initiatives and adopt new-age mechanisms to re-skill employees and optimize talent as well as have stronger retention programs. Many organizations today prefer candidates with higher learning abilities (especially in the 0-5 year experience slab. Senior level hiring is likely to witness shrinkage in 2019 as mid-level hiring will continue to rise. “Jobs roles in IT have become multi-dimensional and the industry needs to take a generation leap in 2019 when it comes to re-skilling. To facilitate advanced skilling, it is also crucial for organizations to hire high skilled and technologically sound HR representatives as well as development specialists who can hire the right talent in the ever competitive market. Investments in IT re-skilling will increase by around 20% in 2019,” added Ms. Alka Dhingra.

Salaries in India are projected to rise by 10% to 13% in 2019, same as the actual increase in 2018. The highest paid technology areas are going to be big data analytics, machine learning and AI developers. However, automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are expected to reshape workplace culture and skill requirements. Organisations, therefore, should re-examine not just their talent strategies but also their remuneration strategies for creating the workforce of the future. Diversity hiring will also become increasingly important in 2019 and beyond.