T
here was one inescapable and, perhaps, startling conclusion from recent research by professional networking site LinkedIn: over the next five years, 150 million new
technology jobs will be created across the world. Now the question is: who is going to fill those vacancies as the battle intensifies for overseas talent? By 2030, there will be a global shortage of more
than 85 million tech workers, representing $8.5 trillion in lost annual revenue, according to Los Angeles-based management consulting firm Korn Ferry. Among the economies expected to be hit hardest are
Brazil, Indonesia and Japan, which could face shortages of up to 18 million workers apiece. The United States and Russia are expected to be short six million workers each, while China could face a deficit of 12 million. “It’s pure supply and demand,” says Alan Guarino,
a vice-chairman at Korn Ferry. “Companies are paying more, they’re hiring more, but there is still a shortage of high-skilled tech workers. Technology is the thread that runs across every aspect of business.” As IBM's 2021 'Global AI Adoption Index' emphasises, the demand for tech skills is not the problem: it's the supply. “The need for AI has been accelerated by changing business needs due to the global pandemic,” said IBM after a survey of more than 5,500 business leaders across China, the US, UK, EU, India, Singapore and Latin America, and 39% of leaders identified lack of digital skills as the primary barrier to AI adoption. Many nations, including the UK, are embarking –
with varying degrees of success – on programmes aimed at enhancing the tech skills of indigenous populations, particularly the young, as well as trying to upskill existing workforces. But while such schemes might offer hope of a medium- to long-term solution, they cannot answer
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the immediate, pressing needs. Research among HR professionals and development
executives by online edtech company FourthRev, found that 81% of British companies would look abroad in the coming year for the digital skills they need if, as feared, the necessary home-grown talent could not be found. The UK, along with the US, Australia and others,
have made moves this year to fast-track visas in a bid to attract the tech skills they need. The British, though, have a particularly acute problem because of the end of free movement from the EU following Brexit. Richard Leslie, CEO of The Sourcing Hub, a business
development consultancy helping UK firms with their tech delivery capability, says Britain’s secession from the EU was always going to “worsen the long-standing issue of the digital skills shortage, which has seen startups count on an influx of foreign labour for years”. Over half of tech founders, he adds, believe that
Brexit has posed the biggest threat to London’s booming digital industry, chiefly due to the increased risk of missing out on the best international talent. Not that Europe has been the only source of
migrant techies operating in Britain. The UK and the US, particularly, have frequently turned to SE Asia and, especially, India for the skills so much in demand. But India itself is now facing a very real shortage of digital skills. A report commissioned by Amazon Web Services
(AWS) found that India’s current workforce comprised only 12% digitally skilled employees – a number, the report said, that would need to increase nine-fold by 2025 to keep pace with technological advances and demand. India successfully tapped into the first wave of IT demand, said AWS, but the new skill requirement is
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