Gartner: Big Data to Create 1.9M U.S. IT Jobs Over Next 2+ Yrs

October 22, 2012 Written by  Ted O'Brien

But there aren’t enough skilled people to fill the jobs, say Gartner analyst

By Patrick Thibodeau

October 22, 2012 12:57 PM ET

Computerworld - ORLANDO - There were a lot of reasons for Gartner researchers to give a gloomy economic outlook at its Symposium/ITxpo conference here, especially after the latest round of quarterly reports from Intel, IBM and others. But the picture painted by Peter Sondergaard, Gartner's head of research, was upbeat in a surprising way.

Gartner isn't revising its global IT growth forecast significantly, which remains down from the initial expectations for this year. But Garter's relatively flat revenue forecast isn't being carried over to jobs, at least in one sector of IT: big data.

Big data, which refers to data collected and analyzed from every imaginable source, is becoming an engine of job creation as businesses discover ways to turn data into revenue, says Gartner. By 2015, it is expected to create 4.4 million IT jobs globally, of which 1.9 million will be in the U.S.

Applying an economic multiplier to those jobs, Gartner expects that each big data IT job added to the economy will create employment for three more people outside the tech industry in the U.S., adding six million jobs to the economy. That's the kind of estimate that presidential candidates, if they focused on IT's impact on the economy instead of fossil fuel fracking and pipelines, might jump on.

But Sondergaard's estimate included a caveat -- namely, that there's a shortage of skilled workers. Only a third of the big data jobs will be filled.

"There is not enough talent in the industry," said Sondergaard. "[Education] is failing us." Read More on ComputerWorld.com