97,000 posts in analytics and data vacant in 2019, claims report

BENGALURU: India is expected to see 1.5 lakh new job openings in data science this year, which is an increase of about 62% from last year, according to a report prepared by an edtech firm.

A majority of these jobs would preferably be for professionals with less than five years of experience. Great Learning conducted the survey among working professionals in data science. The mix of respondents included executives, managers and senior managers.

In 2019, as per the study by the company, close to 97,000 positions related to analytics and data were vacant due to a dearth of qualified talent. The top sectors hiring for this kind of talent remained BFSI, energy, pharma and healthcare and ecommerce, among a few others.

Over the past few years, with the growing digital economy, data science has gained importance as it allows companies to better understand consumer mindsets to improve engagement and sales. “With vast quantities of data being generated, the data science vertical is key to mining actionable insights for businesses,” Great Learning cofounder Hari Krishnan Nair said.

The data science domain requires expertise in disciplines including mathematics, statistics, IT and computer science. The roles that are generally available in the entry roles, as per the study, include data scientist, data analyst, data engineer and business intelligence developer.