Since the start of the Information Age, the
technology industry has grown year-on-year and this trend has only been escalated
by Covid-19. The industry is playing a crucial part in the response to
coronavirus – helping the healthcare sector track the virus, aiding banks at a
time of heightened cyber threats and supporting companies across the globe take
their operations online.
Before the outbreak, Europe’s technology
industry achieved an annual
investment of $34.3 billion, with $1.7 billion of that capital being invested
in Swiss companies, therefore, ranking Switzerland in the top five. 2020 looks
set to be a promising year for this industry as companies in every corner of
the globe become increasingly reliant of technology professionals.
While we only seem to be in the foothills of Covid-19’s impact on the global workforce there are clear trends emerging and
tech and digital skills are proving themselves to be more valuable than ever.
The healthcare sector
Covid-19 has seen the healthcare and life
sciences sector become more dependent on technology. As the spread of the
virus continued to pick up pace, companies and governing bodies turned to the
one thing that could be shared faster – information.
New apps designed to track Covid-19 using
the Apple and Google Exposure Notification API swiftly entered the scene with
the first release in Switzerland. The SwissCovid
app has been trialled on a voluntary basis and gained backing from 70% of
users. Swiss developers are now looking to roll out the app to the Swiss army
and medical professionals. This presents an opportunity for developers to offer
their coding skills to fight against the virus – or pick
up the basics of coding - but it also signals we’ll see mobile apps as
solutions to future global problems and therefore drive up the demand for user
experience (UX) skills and cross-platform development.
Meanwhile in the US, technology
professionals have been pushing their AI skills to new limits to create innovative
data platforms that provide information on the availability of hospital beds.
The growing ecommerce industry
Covid-19 has not only heightened the demand
for tech and digital skills, it has nurtured our developing technology
ecosystems. Ecommerce spending was growing at an unstoppable rate well before
coronavirus and since it’s unknown when or if things will return to normal many
retailers may choose to take their operations entirely online. This $3,535
billion industry will call for more sophisticated websites and high-level
digital infrastructure - a challenge for retailers but an interesting
opportunity for web developers, software support specialists and even solution
architects.
A call for data scientists
In a similar way that ecommerce has taken a
larger share of the consumer spending pie, banking institutes have resorted to
taking their services online too. This ever-increasing digitalisation is
generating more data than ever before and causing a swell in data analytics.
Employers were already showing an increased interest in data analytic skills,
with data science job postings surging
by 256% in the last six years, and this demand shows no signs of slowing
down. In response to Covid-19, organisations are going face to face with the
increasing digital skills gap and actively fostering a digital culture.
The cloud has become more important than
ever
For many individuals, the introduction of
the cloud was the perfect answer to limited storage space, but for
organisations, cloud services have proved an essential piece of the remote
working puzzle. Within the tech and digital industry, cloud and
infrastructure have asserted their dominance as top skills for employees to
list on their CVs.
The rising threat to data security
Whilst businesses hail the functionalities
of cloud services they must also recognise the added threat that cloud storage
poses to their documents and data. Databarracks report in their 2019 Data Health Check
that from 2016-2019 the number of data loss cases as a result of cyber attacks
had almost increased twofold.
Evidently, cybersecurity was already
proving to be a rising star in the digital and tech skills sphere but Covid-19
has offered a fast-track ticket to the top. The pandemic is not only bringing
new tech and digital skills into the limelight but it’s magnifying the need for
larger digital teams, introducing new roles such as Chief Information Security
Officer (CISO) and creating a boom in technology recruitment.
How can Swisslinx help you?
Prior to Covid-19, digital and technology
was establishing itself as one of our key developing markets and this surge in
recruitment activity is only set to increase. We recognise the importance of
keeping pace with technology drivers and trends, and our deep understanding of
the industry enables us to identify talent from both local and international
markets. Contact us to find
out how we can help you during the time of heightened demand for tech and digital skills.
