India may have 1.4 million new IT jobs by 2027 but there’s a shortage of IT professionals to fill those roles

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• A joint study conducted by Cisco and the International Data Corporation states that there could more than 1.4 million new IT jobs available in India by 2027.
• This would mean a 46% growth in employment opportunities derived from the digital sector.
• But even now 140,000 jobs are vacant in the IT segment due to underskilled graduates who aren’t ‘job ready’ flooding the market.

Emerging technology like cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to add 1.4 million new IT jobs in India by 2027 according to ‘The 20 Most Significant IT Roles You Should Consider in India’ report by Cisco and the International Data Corporation.

While employment opportunities may be aplenty 140,000 jobs lie vacant in artificial intelligence and big data analytics as of now according to a Nasscom report that came out in July.

A 1.4 million increase in jobs would mean a 46% in growth in employment opportunities driven by digital transformation according to IANS. Leading the digital industry will the demand for professionals will skills in cloud solutions, followed by data analysis and big data.

Supply-demand mismatch

The Cisco-led report highlights that demand for these roles will be all the more paramount since there’s a shortage of available IT professionals with the required skill sets. Since IT organisations may find these roles hard to fill, it’s possible they may choose to implement in-house programs to train their existing employees.

Moreover, the availability of these jobs will determine how and where people work, especially taking into account India’s demographic dividend.

Nasscom’s report in July highlighted that while there may be a demand of IT professionals, there’s a link between the low employability rate of India’s engineering graduates and the fact their skills are currently inadequate when it comes to actual application.

Basically, IT graduates may have the degree but they’re nowhere near job ready.

With the upcoming opportunities, it seems imperative that the $167 billion Indian IT industry needs to invest in re-skilling their employees in order to fully capitalise on new technologies.

The list of ‘Most Significant IT Roles’ is the culmination of surveying the most ‘in-demand’ positions and the ones that will play the ‘most important’ roles in the coming future. The global survey examined 2 million IT job postings and came up with a list of 20 specific IT roles that it deems to be the most significant.

See also:

Potential for India’s workforce lies in digital transformation: Report

IT whirlwind has impacted mid-level employees the most — here’s how

Tamil Nadu is building a union of Tech professionals