Demand for data scientists in India up by over 400%: Study

New Delhi : Driven by increased focus on digital transformation, the demand for data scientists in India shot up by 417 per cent in the past one year, according to a new study.

People seeking data scientists job during the same period increased by just 19 per cent, according to the study titled "Talent Supply Index" (TSI) by data-driven hiring solution provider Belong Technologies India Pvt Ltd.

The demand for security engineers in the past year increased by 120 per cent while the supply has been able to match up by only 14 per cent, showed the 2018 edition of TSI.

"If the TSI 2017 data proved that we are in a candidate-driven market, the 2018 numbers should be a wake-up call for talent acquisition to adopt data-driven and a candidate-first approach to attract the best talent," said Rishabh Kaul, Co-Founder, Belong.

"Companies can no longer solely expect candidates to apply to them and should invest in going 'outbound' to have a greater chance at attracting this scarce talent," Kaul added.

The TSI measures how competitive the market is for a given job by dividing the total number of people with relevant skills by the total number of active opportunities for that job.

Its 2018 edition took into consideration a randomised sample set of over 1.5 million jobs spread across the last two years in India along with over 500,000 candidates.

The findings showed that engineering managers and architects are moving jobs more frequently and the average tenure for these roles dropped by 30 to 35 per cent last year.

Female representation in technology roles stood at an average of just 12 per cent across roles, according to the study.