While data-driven decisions remain ever-critical to organisations, the overall number of jobs in data science and analytics has seen a degrowth in the last 12 months, says a new report. A combination of factors, including the prevailing global macroeconomic uncertainty, are impacting these roles especially in the IT industry.
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Great Learning, the professional and higher education platform, has published the ‘Analytics and Data Science Jobs in India 2023’ report. It aims to give a perspective about the changing jobs landscape in this domain and can help professionals leverage the available opportunities better.
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BFSI sector reports the highest share of data analytics jobs in 2023
According to the report, in 2023, the BFSI sector saw India’s single-largest share of data science and analytics jobs with over 1/3rd of such jobs overall. This growth has been driven by the use of new technologies such as AI/ML and big data analytics to enhance operations like risk management, fraud detection, and customer service.
With data science being used in almost every function, financial institutions are beginning to hire a lot more personnel to make better decisions.
The share of IT sector jobs among the overall data science and analytics jobs has seen a significant reduction since last year. This can be attributed to global recessionary trends, especially in the US and Europe, where a lot of IT sector clients are located.
Similarly, jobs in energy & utilities as a percentage of the whole dropped compared to 2022, whereas those in retail & CPG and pharma & healthcare have risen this year.
Data jobs are growing in important metros like Chennai and Hyderabad; Bengaluru still holds the largest share
Being the country’s tech capital, Bengaluru continues to hold the largest share of data science and analytics jobs despite a slight drop from 2022.
Other locations, such as Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, and Chennai, have had an increase in their share as organisations migrate towards other talent hubs, with Bengaluru slowly reaching a saturation point.
In particular, Chennai’s automotive and manufacturing sectors and Hyderabad’s booming pharmaceutical & biotechnology industries are additionally generating greater demand for data science professionals as these sectors adopt data-driven approaches.
MNC IT & KPOs still account for the highest share of jobs this year; domestic non-IT firms report highest jump in job openings compared to 2022
The maximum openings for data science and analytics jobs in India in 2023 were in MNC IT & KPOs as these organisations typically work with larger clients and, resultantly, manage large amounts of data. However, their share of data jobs has dropped over the previous year mainly due to the recessionary macroeconomic scenarios in the western world impacting the sector.
While the job openings for data and analytics in MNC IT & KPOs have gone down by 21 percentage points (pp) vs 2022, those in domestic non-IT firms and domestic IT & KPO firms have increased by 20 pp and 8 pp respectively, compared to the previous year.
While jobs available for mid-level professionals are growing, there is a decline in open jobs for senior-level professionals
The number of data science & analytics jobs was primarily skewed towards professionals in the 2–5 years and 5–7 years experience bracket. These two work-ex categories have even historically been favoured because of their adaptability and lower cost to organisations compared to more senior age groups.
Besides, professionals in these brackets have relevant skills and practical experience, giving them an edge over freshers. In 2022, the share of jobs for the 2–5 years and 5–7 years work-ex bracket was the same.
While there has since been an increase in positions in both groups, the 2–5 years experience bracket sees a higher jump (13 pp) in openings as a consequence of cost-cutting measures amidst the recession.
Opportunities for more experienced individuals (7+ years) have reduced—with the tough macroeconomic conditions and the resulting preference of organisations to upskill their employees internally instead of making fresh, expensive hires.
More positions are available in the 6–10 LPA salary range for analytics & data science specialists
Open data science and analytics jobs in the income ranges between 6–10 LPA and 10–15 LPA make up close to 60% of all data related jobs in 2023. This statistic is in line with the rising number of jobs for those with 2–5 and 5–7 years of experience. The information also reiterates the fact that organisations aren’t as keen on hiring freshers and more experienced personnel this year.
MBA degree becomes prerequisite for a growing number of data science & analytics jobs, highlighting a stronger business integration of the field
There has been a decrease in vacant positions in the data science domain for those graduating with engineering degrees largely due to the decline in freshers’ hiring across industries because of macroeconomic conditions.
Hiring freshers is a cost-intensive affair as organisations need to train them before deploying them on projects. However, data science and analytics jobs for MBA graduates have gone up this year as firms are increasingly interested in hiring candidates with not just data science skills but also managerial skills to manage existing teams.
MBA degrees with data science & analytics specialisations are aiming to fulfil this increased demand.
‘Business analyst’ remains the most in-demand job role; NLP, data architect, and AI/ML engineer roles on an upward trajectory in 2023
While ‘business analyst’ remains the most in-demand position this year by volume, the share of data jobs for AI/ML engineers, big data analytics, data architects, computer vision, and NLP has grown since 2022.
NLP roles, especially, have seen their share significantly rise over the last year as they are vital for applications like virtual assistants and sentiment analysis. A decreasing trend has been seen in roles for deep learning, data engineering.
Hari Krishnan Nair, co-founder, Great Learning, said, “India is in the midst of a massive digital transformation supporting business operations globally, and there is a considerable push towards embracing data-driven decisions to achieve more efficient business operations. This year’s report has sprung some surprises—but once economies rebound, we can expect data science and analytics jobs in India to grow further and open up more unique job profiles.”