IT Staffing Report: April 9, 2015

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TEKsystems survey finds 44% to up hiring for big data positions

Organizations are addressing big data skills shortages through training and contingent hires, according to a TEKsystems survey of IT leaders.

Overall, 44% of IT leaders expect hiring for big data positions to increase, 52% expect it to stay the same and 4% expect it to decrease.

According to the survey, 42% of IT leaders cite training/development and realignment of existing staff as their leading approach to address big data skills gaps. This was followed by hiring contingent staff at 35%, hiring full-time staff at 29% and outsourcing at 20%. However, 18% indicated they had no workforce strategy for addressing big data skills gaps.

The research found strategic big data roles are more difficult to secure: 65% of IT leaders surveyed ranked big data architects as the most difficult role to fill, followed by data scientists at 48% and data modelers at 43%.

“There is certainly immense value in big data, but without great people and a focus on the workforce, the prospects that big data can deliver will unfortunately rarely be realized,” said David Spires, TEKsystems director, applications division. “Too often organizations delay their workforce needs until it is too late. When the focus is building a team of great people, organizations will always yield better results than when they rely only on the technology.”

TEKsystems polled more than 200 IT leaders (CIOs, IT vice presidents, IT directors, IT hiring managers) in February 2015. TEKsystems, part of the Allegis Group, is the largest IT staffing firm in the US.