Demand for digital jobs continues to grow and business and government leaders must step up to ensure no one is left behind, according to a report launched by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in partnership with Randstad.
It looked at 417 million online job postings in 10 countries.
“We are in the middle of a profound shift in how we all work and that brings challenges and opportunities,” Randstad CEO Sander van ’t Noordende said.
“We all must focus on how we can adapt, reskill and embrace technology to find opportunities in this new world of work,” van ’t Noordende continued. “However, there is a risk that people are left behind. I believe business leaders and policymakers need to step up to make sure the digital revolution is an equal one for all workers.”
In the US, online job postings for digital jobs have grown 24% in the last four years, led by a 116% surge in adverts seeking data engineers, according to the report.
Software developers, programmers and engineers are in particular demand. In the UK approximately two in every three online job postings for digital professionals are seeking software developers and programmers. In Canada, Singapore and Spain, software developers and engineers account for close to 50% of the postings for digital professionals. In Germany and France, the share of job postings for software developers and programmers is slightly lower, but still considerable, at 37% and 36% respectively.
Computer and data analysts or administrators represent approximately one in five of the selected digital occupations across the 10 countries analyzed.
Digital jobs already make up a significant share of all vacancies posted online and account for the following percentage of all job postings, according to the report. Here are the percentages by country in the 10 countries tracked:
- Spain, 12%
- Italy, 12%
- Netherlands, 11%
- Singapore, 11%
- UK, 11%
- Germany, 10%
- Belgium, 9%
- US, 7%
- France, 7%
- Canada, 6%
Fast-growing skills cited by the report include advanced data analytics, cybersecurity, programming, automation and the Internet of Things and digital skills related to business and sales.