The technology industry is booming, in fact, worldwide IT spending is forecast to surpass $3.7 trillion in 2013 , and one sector driving this exponential growth is big data.
According to research from Gartner, the data industry has the potential to create more than 4.4 million technology jobs by 2015, and it’s existing impact hasn’t gone unnoticed by professionals. New research from CWJobs.co.uk found that almost half of professionals believe there are more job opportunities in data management and analytics than there were a year ago (48%), showing that the benefits of big data could already be available to professionals.
CWJobs new research on big data was launched at the CWJobs breakfast briefing on ‘
‘big data’, held in London last month. The audience heard from speakers Peter Judge, Editor of TechWeekEurope, and Fiarcha Woodman, European IT Director at Aimia, who discussed the latest trends in big data, and what it could mean for IT recruitment.
The growth in big data adoption has in part been driven by new technologies, as they streamline the process of storing, processing and visualising data sets in real time. Rising levels of data can cause problems for companies who aren’t equipped with the professionals skilled to manage it, as they can potentially miss out on insights that could shape their company’s future growth or downfall.
This boom in big data adoption has created a huge need for professionals skilled in the management of this information, and could create big opportunities in IT recruitment. This has been reinforced by the 46% of professionals who feel that skills in data management are going to be more widely required in the future, with 47% stating that these skills are already a prerequisite of their current role.
With demand for skilled professionals increasing, over half have already acquired skills or experience in data management or analytics (56%), with a further 67% considering gaining experience in this discipline. In fact, almost two thirds of professionals would be willing to invest their own time or money to acquire these skills (63%).
With levels of data continuing to grow, it’s vital that Britain has a workforce that is skilled to manage it. With the data readily available, companies need to react now to ensure that they have sufficient levels of skilled professionals, who can analyse and manage the information, to ensure it is of the greatest benefit to businesses. For jobseekers, maintaining an understanding of big data could make or break their career – with data levels growing and vacancies for professionals rising, an awareness of data management and analysis could help them stand out from the crowd and break into this lucrative sector.
Visit CWJobs Youtube channel to watch highlights from CWJobs breakfast briefing.
About the Author:
Richard Nott | Website Director at CWJobs.co.uk | @CWJobsUK
Richard Nott is Website Director at CWJobs.co.uk and has worked with the company for 14 years.
CWJobs.co.uk is the leading specialist IT recruitment website serving contract and permanent IT jobseekers throughout the UK and Ireland. The site draws over 509,000 unique users each month, attracted by the opportunity to search an average of more than 10,000 IT job opportunities at any one time.
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