Tech jobs will reach 55.3 million globally in 2020, up about 4% over 2019, according to a new prediction from analyst firm IDC.
That pace of growth is also expected to continue through 2023, when the number of jobs will exceed 62 million globally.
In the U.S. alone, IDC expects there will be nearly 6 million tech-related jobs in 2020, up 1.4% over 2019.
It is the first time IDC has calculated the jobs data. The estimates are based on several sources and cover specific industries and regions.
IDC looked at 37 different technology job roles, including designer/developer/engineer in many information and communications technology segments. For example, one role is data engineer while another is machine learning designer. These jobs involve activities within projects, programs and lines of business related to software, hardware and related services. They can be in any industry.
There are eight roles in the applications group that are related to software development and management, while there are five roles in the technical group and five in the technical support group. Together those three groups make up 75% of all the tech jobs.
Cybersecurity jobs as a group are expected to grow the most of any group over five years by 9.6% annually.
Three out of 37 jobs will account for one third of all tech jobs. They are software developer/engineer, user support specialist and systems analyst. The fastest growing tech roles are data scientist, by 13.7% over the period, machine learning design/development/engineer by 13.6% and data engineer by 12.9%.
In the U.S., those three job roles are already growing by more than 10% a year and are also the fastest growing roles and the only roles showing double-digit growth.
“We are moving away from IT employees being focused around basic IT installation and maintenance roles and shifting toward roles that can build database architecture and functionality to derive intelligence and insights from an organization's digital transformation efforts,” said Craig Simpson, an IDC research manager, in a statement.
New skills and job roles are needed to shape technology roadmaps, said Eileen Smith, an IDC vice president. She identified discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing and banking as the industries that will employ the most tech workers in digital transformation efforts.
IT organizations are expected to adjust how they hire as well as their career development and training to make digital transformation possible, IDC said.
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