Recent study shows that software engineer jobs will be the most difficult to fill in 2016. The reason for that is simple – there are not enough people.

It is something that you should already be used to hearing about the global IT industry. There are simply not enough qualified people to fill all the positions. So currently there is a big push from businesses, organizations, even governments in order to get more and more people into the IT industry. Would that create a surplus of people in the long run when one day suddenly there will be too many IT specialists and not enough jobs? Perhaps, but at the moment no one is even thinking about that.

Currently there are hundreds of thousands free IT jobs if not more. The EU alone needs more than a million IT specialists until 2020 just in order to sustain the current state of the industry, let alone prepping for a huge growth. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has a study in which it seeks the most difficult jobs to fill during 2016. Unsurprisingly software engineers claim a spot on the list. “The Conference Board estimates there will be three jobs available for every new college graduate from a computer science program in 2016. Not surprising, since the BLS estimates 222,600 software engineering jobs will need to be filled by 2022 in the US”, SHRM vice president of editorial Tony Lee writes in an official statement.

If you need an even bigger challenge, data scientists are also among the most wanted. “Roughly 6,000 companies are expected to hire for an estimated 4.4 million IT jobs with direct ties to data analysis next year, reported CareerCast via Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner. Data science’s hiring boom is tricky to measure, say analysts, because the field is so new that the BLS doesn’t yet track specific hiring needs. In addition, the skill sets and responsibilities are still being defined at many companies, which likely will increase the recruiting challenge as hiring managers redefine what they seek on a regular basis”, Lee says.

Now expand this demand globally and you will see that the hunger for IT specialists is really, really huge. Sadly you can’t become an IT specialist in a day or two. It is a long and complex process, which is why the training industry is on fire right now. People and companies all over the globe are in serious need of qualified employees and most of the business still even haven’t realized that. So for the foreseeable future it would be a good investment to get certified. This also serves as a big stimulus for current and future employees as the amount of people gunning for IT jobs will slowly increase. This would in turn make the quality go up, as you will have to continue to improve and learn new things in order to be on top of the trends in your field. Interesting times are coming, that’s for sure. In order to be ready for them, you should think about improving your skills and certifications now.

Image credit: Flickr (CC) / Tim Regan