Here is LinkedIn’s list of 10 most sought-after job roles in India right now

1. Machine Learning Engineer
2. Application Development Analyst
3. Back End Developer
4. Full Stack Engineer
5. Data Scientist
6. Customer Success Manager
7. Digital Marketing Specialist
8. Big Data Developer
9. Sales Recruiter
10. Python Developer

As a data scientist told LinkedIn, his job title didn’t exist when he was a student at a university less than five years ago. People in his area of expertise were described as being into 'analytics or machine learning studies'.

The report said in these times of rapid change the human resources (HR) and talent acquisition professionals need to keep it simple. The emphasis should be on looking for employees with transferable skills which enable them to adapt to changing workforce demands.

Tech roles are in high demand, but soft skills are also key

Technology roles dominate this list, but the report also finds these roles are no longer limited to only technology companies. Today, technology jobs are in demand across sectors from pharmaceuticals to banking and retail, and companies in these industries see a high demand for talent in these roles.

For example, the role of Machine Learning Engineer has seen a 43x rate of growth in this five-year period, and the Application Development Analyst’s role has seen a 32x rate of growth.

However, soft skills are seen as one of the most in-demand skills and are increasingly more critical to success in this tech age.

Where are these professionals coming from? While machine learning and data scientists in the US come from academia or have a master’s degree, over 50 percent of these professionals in India have a bachelor’s degree and are trained on the job.

Feon Ang, VP-Asia Pacific, LinkedIn Talent and Learning Solutions said, “It is interesting to observe that soft skills such as relationship building and customer management are equally relevant for jobs of tomorrow.”

With India set to see the youngest workforce in 2020, Ang said, recruiters and HR officers will benefit by hiring based on skills, instead of previous job titles, and upskilling should be a focus for all organisations in order to make talent future-ready.

Knowing the supply/demand balance in a city can help companies decide whether to look for talent in ‘x’ city or tap into talent willing to migrate.

For instance, the explosion of data has created demand for data scientists across cities, with Mumbai and NCR witnessing maximum competition for this role. Outward bound, India is the largest supplier of data scientists and cyber security specialists to Singapore where 22 percent to all data scientists who have migrated there are from India.