50,000 jobs up for grabs in data science, machine learning; talent available only 50%

Approximately 50,000 jobs are up for grabs in data science and machine learning sectors in India due to a shortage in qualified talent. Within the segment, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and e-commerce space would have a majority of job opernings, according to a report by ed-tech company Great Learning.

The job market in this space is heavily tilted towards job seekers, with the number of jobs on offer twice that of available talent.

The report is based on a study of 28,000 participants across 3,000 organisations in India. Currently, India contributes 12 percent of such jobs when compared to the rest of the world.

Data Science jobs and where it will be created:

According to the report, skills in cloud, big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence are going to be critical for data science professionals to land jobs. When it comes to tools, the highest number of job searches are observed in SQL (programming language), while Python is the fastest growing in the country.

Hari Krishnan Nair, Co-founder, Great Learning said, "Over the past one year we have seen heightened interest from companies across IT, BFSI and telecom for professionals in data science. Companies like Edelweiss, Verizon and TCS have recruited several students from us for various roles in machine learning and data science, in the last six months."

According to Gartner, out of 10 lakh registered companies in India, 75 percent have invested or are going to invest in Machine Learning and Data Science. When it comes to demand for professionals in this space, banking and financial services lead the race having created almost 44 percent jobs in the domain.

E-commerce has emerged as a major market for data science professionals having created 12 percent of all analytics jobs in 2017. Other sectors creating jobs for such professionals include healthcare, energy, telecom and media.

On one hand, while roles like data science are creating jobs, others like Statistical Analysis System (SAS) have witnessed a decline, the report said.