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Demand for cloud workers on the up
24 December 2012
Cushing Anderson, vice president of IDC, says his firm’s recent study shows there are far more IT jobs available than there are cloud-skilled workers to fill them
Demand for ‘cloud-ready’ IT workers will grow by 26 per cent annually until 2015, with as many as 7 million cloud-related jobs available worldwide, according to an IDC white paper sponsored by Microsoft.
The Climate Change: Cloud’s Impact on IT Organizations and Staffing white paper reports that although cloud related job demand is on the increase, IT hiring managers have failed to fill an existing 1.7 million open cloud-related positions in 2012. This is because job seekers lack the training and certification needed to work in a cloud-enabled world.
In the US, the IT sector is experiencing modest growth of IT jobs in general, with the average growth in IT employment between 1.1 and 2.7 per cent per year through 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, amid modest growth of IT jobs, cloud-sector jobs are increasing swiftly. With the workforce unprepared to take on these jobs, there is an urgent need to retrain existing IT professionals and encourage students to pursue cloud-related IT trainings and certifications.
“Despite modest growth of the IT sector overall in the US, cloud-ready jobs are increasing as we head into 2013, but with this increase comes the harsh reality that workforces around the world are steps behind when it comes to attaining the skills necessary to thrive in the cloud computing industry,” said Cushing Anderson, program vice president, IDC. “Unlike IT skill shortages in the past, solving this skills gap is extremely challenging, given that cloud brings a new set of skills, which haven’t been needed in the past. There is no one-size-fits-all set of criteria for jobs in cloud computing. Therefore, training and certification is essential for preparing prospective job candidates to work in cloud-related jobs.”
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