India is likely to add over 1.4 million new IT jobs by 2027  as per the findings of a joint study by Cisco and International Data Corporation (IDC). 

According to IDC InfoBrief, “The 20 Most Significant IT Roles You Should Consider in India” job roles like social media administrator, machine learning designer, and IoT designer are among the most in-demand job roles in the coming years.”

This represents a 46% growth in jobs which will majorly be driven by emerging technologies like cybersecurity, Internet of things (IoT) and Big Data. 

Of the 9.1 million IT job positions in India in 2017, 5.9 million job postings were for new-age roles. Globally new-age jobs are expected to add more the 5 million jobs by 2027. 

However as skill sets required in this digital age are changing for most industries, it’s also transforming how and where people work. As a result, IT organizations might find it difficult to fill these niche roles. 

"This calls for upskilling the employee skill sets through certification programs to upgrade their knowledge and grow the organization from within," the survey found. 

The study also found that nearly a fifth of employees self-funded their certification courses while about 50% of them underwent some training in 2017.  As per the report, about 89% of hiring managers reported a higher level of trust on candidates having certifications, while 88% of customers experienced an improvement in the level of service and support to end users. 

The Cisco findings reiterate the same sentiment as was evinced by IT industry body Nasscom. Nasscom had highlighted in July that nearly 1.4 lakh jobs are vacant in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics segment across various sectors in the country, out of the total demand of 5.1 lakh employees.

In February this year, Nasscom had also launched a FutureSkills platform to upskill 2 Mn IT employees.