Analytics jobs increase by 80% in India

Demand for analytics professionals in India grew by 80% last year as businesses made it a priority to understand and benefit from vast amounts of data.

The Analytics India Jobs Study 2013, conducted by Analytics India magazine, has estimated that jobs in analytics grew by 80% last year. This meant 6% increase in monthly job postings.

The report says that in 2013, recruiters demanded an average work experience of 7.5 years compared to 6 years in 2012. In terms of location, Bangalore had 40% of the job openings, whereas Delhi/NCR came close with 33% indicating favourable market for analytics experts in the two cities.

But, does analytics job market really hold the potential being demonstrated by the survey?

Manish Bahl, country manager, at Forrester India said analytics is one of the top investment priorities for Indian firms.

“New roles are emerging especially in the area of marketing science, marketing technologists, including web developers, database administrators, and application developers; user experience professionals,” said Manish.

Sectors such as BFSI, retail, manufacturing, as well as energy and utilities, are likely to witness higher demand for experts in analytics in the future. The Analytics India Jobs Study 2013 indicates that BFSI has the most analytics professionals.

But, is the experience factor sought by firms likely to act as a dampener for analytics experts?

“I believe companies will have to offset experience with fresh graduates as there is a demand and supply gap in the market," said Bahl.

“Furthermore, we expect an industry body like NASSCOM to help address this demand and supply gap by working with educational institutions and with the government in introducing formal data science-related university programs,” added Manish.

Companies such as WNS, Hewlett Packard, CRISIL, HSBC, Accenture, Max Life, and Dell were among the top recruiting firms in 2013. However, the biggest change in 2013 was that the job openings in financial analytics were up just 7% as against 19% in the previous year. On the other hand, risk analytics saw a surge in the number of openings at 13%.

“The biggest obstacle that enterprises face today is finding analytics experts in India. A formal analytic degree is yet to become a standard in India,” feels Bahl.

Bahl said experienced professionals come at premium and he expects more suppler will offer analytic-related courses soon.