Forrester’s 2023 European outlook claims it takes 69 days to fill tech roles, compared to 41 days for the overall market. As more businesses understand the value of hiring in-house data and analytics experts, overcoming the challenges of onboarding such skills need to be overcome. Here, Ryan Jones, co-founder of the UK’s largest data-dedicated jobs platform, OnlyDataJobs, reveals his predictions for the data jobs market in 2023.
While for the entire jobs market, the unemployment rate is at the lowest we’ve seen since the 1970s, there are factors and potential changes to consider as we move into 2023. While some of these changes can be observed across all industries, others are specific to data and analytics roles.
The rise of the contract
In these uncertain times, many organisations are craving the flexibility to cut costs if they need to. This is reflected in the way many are choosing to hire. According to the CIPD’s Resourcing and Talent Planning Report 2022, 63 per cent of organisations aren’t looking beyond the next twelve months when planning their current and future workforce requirements.
The current economic uncertainty, combined with the dynamic shifts driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to an increased desire for flexibility from employers and employees alike. This has given rise to more project-based business models, which are starting to be reflected in the recruitment market through a greater number of temporary, contract roles.
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Hiring contract workers gives organisations and workers increased flexibility — they can simply hire someone for the duration of a project, such as Cloud infrastructure migration or implementation, without having to commit to a permanent hire. This gives companies more flexibility to adapt their workforce as business needs change, scaling up or down as is necessary.
The flexibility of contract roles brings benefits to talent too. Short-term or part-time positions allow professionals to gain a broad range of experience in different roles, industries and businesses, which helps them to become more well-rounded and develop the adaptability required to apply their technical skills to a wide range of applications early on in their career. This could be particularly beneficial to a professional entering the data jobs market, who doesn’t want to be tied down to a skill or industry too soon.
Data skills alone are not enough
Moving into 2023, data and analytics roles will require an increasing number of technical skills. It is no longer enough to be literate in a single programming language — competency of coding in several languages, including SQL, Python, R and Java, is becoming a prerequisite for any data or analytics position.
As a fairly new and evolving sector, technologies are constantly developing that allow data and analytics professionals to reach new capabilities and gain deeper insights from data.
OnlyDataJobs, a jobs board with almost 14,000 postings dedicated to data and analytics positions, shows the top programming languages in demand at the moment are SQL, with over 3,000 vacancies currently, followed by Python with over 2,800 positions available. Having a grasp of more than one programming language is becoming an expectation for roles moving forward, rather than just a plus.
Equally, it’s becoming increasingly important to have hands-on experience of specific Cloud technologies. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominates the Cloud infrastructure market, holding a 33 per cent share. It is also the top managed services platform employers are looking for experience of on the OnlyDataJobs website, with almost 2,000 vacancies currently live. So, while multi-programming language competency is growing in importance, so is experience of the most commonly used Cloud technology.
Experience is important, but employers really do value it when prospective employees have the credentials to prove their knowledge. Getting certified is a valuable trust marker for employers that proves a data and analytics expert’s competency. AWS, Snowflake and Azure all have certifications available to complete, so it’s worth spending the time to get the accredited, competitive edge to stand out from the crowd.
Focus on soft skills
While businesses are increasingly recognising the opportunities that data and analytics bring to their operations, data professionals have the challenging task of turning data into actionable insights that the rest of a company can understand. To do this requires well-developed soft skills, which brings us to one of the most in-demand skills a data expert should possess in 2023.
While these skills are nothing new and have been a major driving factor behind post-pandemic recovery, they’ll become an essential as the market moves forwards. Data professionals don’t just need competency of programming languages and experience of cloud infrastructure platforms, they also need skills around project management, problem-solving and cross-departmental collaboration. These soft skills ensure that the technical tasks completed by data experts can be translated and understood by non-technical teams within the same organisation.
In addition to skills, it’s also important to consider where will be hiring in the new year. The core hirers of data professionals — think consultancy, financial services and technology — will still stand strong going into 2023. But with predictions that the UK economy will be in recession until next summer, having the soft skills to adapt and apply data knowledge to different industries will become even more important. The demand for data won’t dwindle, but the hiring industries may change. Having the soft skills, and communication, collaboration and adaptability that these bring, will ensure that data professionals have the agility to apply their skills to any application.
While the nature of data positions may change in 2023, flexibility, agility and a wide range of experience and skills will become more important than ever for those looking to switch positions or start their career within data and analytics over the next year.
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Ryan Jones is Co-Founder of OnlyDataJobs.
