The Covid-19 pandemic has caused job loss for over 18 million Indians, but there is a whole host of roles in the country that are waiting to be filled up.
Over 93,500 data scientist job roles remained open in India as of August, according to a study by Great Learning, an Indian ed-tech company. These vacancies are not necessarily newly created jobs, and are, in fact, lower in number than they were in 2019.
These open roles constitute nearly 10% of the global demand for data analysts, the report noted. “A key reason for this is the increased availability of top-of-the-line analytics talent in India, which has led to captive firms and international IT and KPO corporations moving more of their business here, investing in newer technologies and digital competencies, and opening up new positions,” said Hari Krishnan Nair, co-founder of Great Learning.
While the demand for young professionals—those with under five years of work experience—continues to dominate this trend, jobs that need professionals with over seven years of experience are on the rise. According to the report, the proportion of jobs for such mid- and senior-level talent is the highest since 2017.
Despite the rising proportion of experienced professionals, the median salaries have fallen this year, possibly because of the global recessionary sentiment. There was a significant drop in the proportion of job roles offered with annual salaries over Rs15 lakh ($20,471). The overall median salary is Rs9.5 lakh, and the report notes that the figures advertised are higher than actual salaries.
Bengaluru, India’s Silicon Valley, is leading the pack with the highest number of data scientist jobs on offer. But the number of jobs in smaller Indian towns has also seen an increase. This is largely because the Covid-19 pandemic forced companies to adopt work-from-home models, which allowed them to be location agnostic while recruiting talent.
Bengaluru’s lead is also explained by the fact that 67.8% of these data science job vacancies emerge out of multinational IT companies in India and the knowledge processes and services industry. But other industries, such as pharma and healthcare, have experienced an uptick compared to last year.
As for skills, the Python software program continues to rule the roost. Only a very minuscule percentage of jobs need expertise in programs like MATLAB and SPSS.