There will be a shortage of 117,000 ICT professionals in 2015

The deficit of ICT specialists will reach 32% for the year 2015, which represents a shortage of more than 117 thousand workers specialized in networks and connectivity. This is what revealed the study “Skills in Networks and Connectivity in Latin America”, commissioned by Cisco for IDC, and carried out in eight countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

“A skilled workforce is a competitive advantage for Latin American countries, for the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century,” says Jordi Botifoll, Cisco Senior Vice President for Latin America. "As the region experiences the rapid emergence of technology trends such as cloud, mobility, video and the Internet of Everything, this shortage of skilled professionals poses a real challenge to the region's economic development."
 
The deficit of qualified professionals in network and connectivity in Brazil, in 2011, was approximately 39,900 workers, equivalent to 20% between labor supply and demand. The greatest shortage, points out the study, occurred in the so-called essential network, such as security, IP telephony and wireless networks, with a gap of 23,643 professionals or 17%.
 
Percentage specialists in emerging networks, which include unified communications, video, cloud computing, mobility, data center and virtualization, represented the greatest shortage, with 27% between the supply and demand of qualified professionals, representing a deficit of 16,232 professionals in 2011. 2012, the forecast demand was 239,653 jobs in the area of networks, with the possibility of reaching 363,584 in 2015.
 
For 2013, the forecast is for the market to offer 276,306 vacancies for 199,819 professionals, that is, a deficit of 28%, or 76,487 of manpower. The 363,584 vacancies expected for 2015 should be concentrated more in the essential network with 232,032, but the biggest gap will be in the emerging network, with 131,552 vacancies for 64,650 qualified professionals (shortage of 51% or 66,702 professionals).
 
This scenario places Brazil as the second country with the most difficulties in finding technically qualified candidates, second only to Mexico among the countries surveyed in Latin America. This is because insufficient availability makes it more expensive to hire and employ skilled networking professionals.
 
IDC conducted 767 interviews between April and October 2012, segmented by industry and size: government, education, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing, media/broadcast/publishing, travel/transportation/distribution, natural resources and other services in companies with more than 100 employees.