Top 5 in-demand and employable skills (2022)

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2020, 85 million jobs could be lost by 2025 due to a shift in the distribution of resources between humans and technology, While 97 million new jobs may be created, many of them are well-suited to the new distribution of resources between humans, machines, and methodologies.

However, the skills crisis is not a new occurrence. Work fundamentally changes whenever there is a shift in technology, forcing workforces to adapt or find new roles.

Following a trend established in recent years, corporate executives continue to place a high priority on new developing positions and talents, as well as the use of cloud computing, big data, and e-commerce. However, interest in encryption, non-humanoid technologies, and machine learning has increased significantly.

Let’s take a look at the top five most in-demand employable skills for 2022 in the modern workplace:

Cloud Computing:

Cloud computing is defined by Microsoft Azure as “the distribution of computing services via the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer accelerated innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.” You generally only pay for the cloud services you use, which helps you reduce operating costs, improve infrastructure overall effectiveness, and scale as your business needs transition.

According to Forrester, 30 percent of businesses will boost IT spending on Cloud Computing, Systems, Security & Risk, and Flexibility in 2021. Whereas, According to TechRepublic, the three main public cloud platforms are speeding up cloud migration and app development to satisfy changing client demands: Microsoft Azure (47 percent revenue growth), Google Cloud (43 percent revenue growth), and Amazon Web Services (43 percent revenue growth) are the top three cloud providers (29 percent Revenue Growth).

The adoption of cloud computing in enterprises has been steady, necessitating cloud computing skills and knowledge of cloud systems and software, databases, storage, and networks.

Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the study and application of digital systems that can accomplish activities that would otherwise need human intelligence.

According to the most recent data, the artificial intelligence market was valued at $27.23 billion in 2019. (Fortune Business Insights, 2020). By 2027, this figure is expected to have increased nearly tenfold in just eight years, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 33.2 percent.

According to artificial intelligence statistics from a recent poll, more than nine out of ten (91.5%) of top organisations surveyed say they are investing in AI regularly (NewVantage, 2020).

Machine Learning:

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that enables it to do tasks more quickly and effectively by providing it with learning capabilities.

According to a recent machine learning report, enterprise usage of ML has reached unprecedented heights. According to a 2019 Statista report, 1/3 of IT executives want to utilise machine learning for business analytics, 25% of IT leaders plan to use machine learning for security, and 16% of IT leaders want to use machine learning in sales and marketing.

Cybersecurity:

As cyber hackers’ increasingly advanced practices continue to disrupt firms, cybersecurity is becoming a rising concern for businesses large and small. According to Gartner, firms will spend more than $123 billion on cybersecurity in 2020, with that figure expected to rise to $170.4 billion by 2022.

Businesses that want to stay afloat in these uncertain times are increasingly valuing cybersecurity. Despite this, there is still a cybersecurity skills gap, with key roles vacant. While some argue that the cybersecurity skills shortage is a hoax, the demand for expertise is still high and growing.

Big Data:

Data will always exist, regardless of how many technologies come and go, therefore skills in big data, data analysis, and data science will stay crucial.

The breakout of COVID-19 has hastened the deployment of Big Data technology. 64.2 percent claim to use data to promote innovation, according to the NewVantage study 2020 on the state of Big data usage. This is a 4.7 percentage point rise from the previous year, with 37.8% achieving a data-driven organisation. This is a 6.8% rise from the previous year.