The surge in IT jobs 

There’s no denying that developers have been in high demand over the past year. While coding and programming have been valuable skills for some time, the pandemic accelerated digitization projects for businesses, making the need to recruit tech talent far more pressing.

In the digital age, leaders looking to make ideas a reality turn to developers to get it done. Tech know-how is the new currency of industry, which is why recruiters are being tasked to kickstart developer hiring drives, whether through coaxing fresh graduates, hosting coding boot camps or simply poaching those with desirable experience.

Developers have become a job market royalty. But before businesses roll out the red carpet, they need to consider what they can do to attract and motivate the best developer talent to work for them.

Why IT Talent Is In Demand?

The future looks bright for those interested in a career in coding. According to a recent report by Indeed, the number of coding jobs is expected to surge by as much as 22% by 2022. This is great news for anyone looking to make a career change, or for those who are already in the tech industry and are looking to move up the ladder.

What’s driving this growth? One major factor is the increasing demand for digital products and services. As businesses strive to stay competitive in a digital world, they are increasingly turning to coders to help them create innovative, cutting-edge products and services.

Another reason for the growth in coding jobs is the increasing importance of big data. Companies are realizing that they need people who can understand and work with big data sets in order to make sense of all the information that’s being collected.

The coding industry is booming, and the demand for coding jobs is only going to increase in the coming years. With more and more businesses moving online and into the digital space, the need for skilled coders is only going to grow. 

The Great Reshuffle

One of the biggest reasons leading to the surge in IT jobs is the onset of The Great Reshuffle.

As initial lockdowns lifted and life became more “normal”, a large number of people chose to leave their jobs. This has caused record numbers of open positions and staff shortages in some industries. Nearly 3% of the US workforce quit their jobs in October 2021, with some of the highest resignation rates in hospitality and healthcare.

But it is becoming clearer that rather than resigning from work altogether, many employees are actually leaving in search of something more fulfilling and better suited to their values and life choices. As per The Great Reshuffle, many have sought better-paid, more flexible employment, or changed careers altogether.

According to a recent study, more and more companies are now offering their employees remote work. A survey of over 1,000 workers showed that 65% of remote workers said that they would consider leaving their current position if the employer doesn’t offer them a remote work arrangement.

In response to this, many employers are starting to offer perks like remote work, flexible hours, and four-day workweeks. These perks are becoming known as “The Great Reshuffle” and they’re helping employers stand out from the competition. 

A recent survey found that 42 % of companies have implemented a flexible-hour policy. Flexible hours can give employees more control over their work day and help them better balance their responsibilities at home and their responsibilities at work.

The job opportunities are endless – from entry-level jobs in tech and coding to roles in business, marketing and sales. 

Talking about the pay, a report suggests, the median salary for coding jobs is expected to grow by more than 15% by 2022 in India. It notes that the average salary for coding jobs in the U.S. is expected to hit $67,000 by 2022. Canada’s average salary is projected to hit $75,000 in the same time period.

IT job trend in 2022

As the IT sector continues to grow, so does the pace of IT job growth. As of October 2021, 197,200 more IT jobs were added to the economy than in the same period in 2019. Since January 2022, a record-breaking number of IT jobs added have been created each month. Employers have increased their compensation packages and offered different work schedules to make it easier for current employees and those seeking new employment to get along. 

To expand their pools of talent and recruit IT talent to work remotely and in-office where work becomes available, IT sector leaders have implemented programs to help them recruit a wide range of IT professionals, from those in cyber security to those in software development. 

Below are some of the trends in one of the top IT companies:

ACCENTURE

• Accenture recently released strong Q2 results. It has been clocking record order wins in ‘large’ size segment, while Indian IT companies are focusing on mid and small-order sizes. The company has also seen accelerated market share gains in FY20-FY22 compared to TCS and Infosys and has been talking about three-times industry growth in recent days versus two-times in the past.
• Accenture’s results continue to show that the momentum for digital transformation and shift to cloud services is growing strong.
• It also revised its annual guidance upwards to 24-26 per cent from the earlier 19-22 per cent.
• It is setting up offices in Jaipur and Coimbatore as a part of a move to access more talent and give employees greater flexibility with respect to where they want to work. It is hiring for finance and a variety of in-demand technology skills in addition to domain and functional experts. This is also a move to address wage inflation and employee attrition in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
• In Q1FY22, Accenture added close to 50,000 employees.
• Accenture has continued to hire aggressively in the management consulting vertical, competing with top 3 in terms of offers at top IIMs this year.
• At Accenture, High-Tech Women Edge, CyberHer and Quantum Impact programs are focused initiatives towards helping high performing women technologists fast-track their careers through training and mentorship.
• As per Srijata Sengupta (HR Head), The focus on skills in areas such as migration, deployment and maintenance across multi-cloud environments and need for data and AI professionals with a focus on skills in Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Virtual Agents, Computer Vision, Data Visualisation are becoming important.

TCS

• TCS is restructuring the company into four new business groups – Acquisition, Relationship Incubation; Enterprise Growth; and Business Transformation.
• As per the new structure, TCS’ existing customer “acquisition” unit will bring in new clients, the new “incubation” business group will handhold clients who are at an early stage of engagement with the company, ideally customers below the $20 million revenue range. Once they mature to a wider range of requirements, they will be serviced by the existing “growth” unit which comprises 200 ISUs. Finally, the largest customers with long-term engagements – ideally $100 million plus clients – will be moved to the new “transformation” unit.
• Service providers looking to have a stronger consulting play are more likely to adopt similar business models.
• Tata Consultancy Services is shifting to a hybrid mode of working. Under its 25X25 model, only 25 per cent of its associates will work from an office at any given point in time, and they need not spend more than 25 per cent of their time in the office.
• TCS has said its subcontractor expenses, which used to be about 7.5%, are now 9% reflecting higher manpower costs across the spectrum.

CAPGEMINI

• Capgemini will look at adding about 60,000 new employees in India this year – higher than it did in 2021.

COGNIZANT

• Cognizant is looking to hire 50,000 freshers from India in 2022. The company reported an attrition of 31% of the Q4FY21 (it follows the January-December financial calendar). Though the attrition numbers are higher compared to peers TCS, Infosys and Wipro, they have come down for the company on a sequential basis. Cognizant had reported attrition of 33 per cent in Q3FY21.

GENERIC TRENDS

• Mercer’s Total Remuneration Survey reports that Data Analytics, Internet Engineering, and sales and Marketing job portfolios are the most difficult roles to fill when it comes to recruitment or even retention.
• Employees have strong preference for Work from Home and Hybrid modes of working. In a survey conducted by recruitment and staffing firm CIEL HR Services, at least 6 out of every 10 employees answered that they were ready to resign instead of returning to the office. Around the same number of respondents said they are ready to skip a higher-paid job which requires them to come to the office, according to the survey findings, shared with ET.
• Attrition Rates for Top Technology Companies:

Final Thoughts

As per industry estimates, there will be 80 million jobs for coding by 2028.

Coding platform Codingal conducted a survey with 250 teachers across the country and found that 84% of them felt online teaching platforms helped them monetise their passion for teaching coding. Around three-fourth of them were also satisfied with the income it generated. 

Among languages, Python and Java are among the most popular and recruiters are happy with people with the required skills even if they don’t have a degree in computer science. At the entry level, coders can earn anywhere between ₹6 and ₹10 lakh a year.

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