Australia began 2017 with a huge spike in the number of people looking for a new job, according to data published today by global online job site, Indeed.
And the number of locals searching for data scientist jobs – also known as the sexiest job of the 21st century – surged by 138 per cent in early January compared to the average level of job search across 2016.
This was the third most searched job term, following searches for nurses (which saw a growth of 627.4 per cent) and teaches (which saw a growth of 266.7 per cent).
“'New year, new job,’ is a global refrain, and January is a perennially busy month for us as people around the world look to make their next career move,” Indeed A/NZ managing director, Chris McDonald, mentioned.
“But this January’s surge in job search in Australia has been exceptionally strong, particularly in nursing, teaching and data scientist roles”.
According to McDonald, the growth in interest in data roles is being driven by a recognition of the “enormous job potential” within the field.
“Data is easier to collect and analyse than ever before. All types of companies and organisations are recognising the enormous value in data and realising that they need to have the skills to integrate and best leverage it to their business advantage,” he added.
A report from Clicks IT recruitment also mirrored this finding.
Its annual recruitment and retention report indicated that being a technology worker in Australia has literally become the ‘it’ profession and that IT developers with strong design skills or digital/data specialists should have little problem finding work.
It also suggested that 2017 will be one of the most positive on record, indicating that more money will be spent on IT this year.
This also ties in with a recent Gartner prediction that 2017 will see a rise in citizen data scientists as automation processes proliferate and intelligent machines start to transcend skills that have traditionally been restricted to the realm of professional data scientists.
"Most organisations don't have enough data scientists consistently available throughout the business, but they do have plenty of skilled information analysts that could become citizen data scientists," said Gartner research director, Joao Tapadinhas, said in a previous report.
"Equipped with the proper tools, they can perform intricate diagnostic analysis and create models that leverage predictive or prescriptive analytics. This enables them to go beyond the analytics reach of regular business users into analytics processes with greater depth and breadth," he said.
Industry leaders also appear to find these hires critical.
“It’s essential for not only collecting, managing and analysing supply chain data, but also for garnering advanced predictive analytics to help executives make more intuitive, accurate and reliable, allowing them to deliver goods and services ahead of the competition,” SAP global vice president of extended supply chain, Richard Howells, said previously.
“It’s all about keeping up with the latest consumer trends and demands and ensuring that you have the right products, in the right place, at the right time to meet those demands,” he said.
