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Publication date: 20 Mar 2023

IT Skills Shortage Affects 60% to 80% of Asia/Pacific Organizations, IDC Finds

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55% of Organizations in Asia/Pacific* (AP) Experienced Greater Numbers of Employees Quitting Last Year

SINGAPORE, March 21, 2023 – According to a recent IDC report, Enterprise Automation to Mitigate the Digital Skills Shortage , around 60%-80% of AP organizations find it difficult or extremely difficult to fill vacancies in many IT roles including security, developers, and data professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining employees, increased security risks, reduced customer satisfaction, and loss of critical knowledge.

Although big tech companies' layoff announcements are making headlines, these layoffs are not representative of the overall skills shortage in the market. Difficulty to fill job vacancies is still among the top issues faced by organizations across industries, especially in labor-dependent ones.

“Skills are difficult to find and take a long time to replace. 53% of organizations in AP are taking 3-4 months longer compared to a year ago to fill technology roles. As skill shortage is affecting nearly all industries, organizations must prioritize upscaling digital skills and implement automation technologies to streamline business processes." said Dr. Lily Phan, Research Director, Future of Work at IDC.

Moreover, 55% of organizations in AP experienced greater numbers of employees quitting their jobs last year, contributing to the shortage which has caused 37% of organizations in AP to delay tech initiatives and 36% to change the direction of tech initiatives.

Enterprise automation can be a solution for organizations in the public sector and labor-dependent industries such as education, manufacturing, government, healthcare, and hospitality sector to compensate for the labor shortage. Automation can take up repetitive tasks and allow employees to focus on customized, bespoke requests from clients. Low/no-code platforms can support non-IT employees to automate their tasks and significantly improve productivity, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction.

There are opportunities for automation solution providers to showcase their offerings to organizations with large frontline workforce such as healthcare, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, government, and education. These sectors are severely impacted by talent shortage and will benefit greatly when applying automation solutions to reduce employees’ workload and improve productivity.

The IDC report, Enterprise Automation to Mitigate the Digital Skills Shortage (#AP50344823) provides insights from organizations' decision makers on the skill shortage, the struggle to attract and hire new staff and, the key technology investments in automation to tackle the challenge of skill shortage and enhancing business productivity. The insights are based on IDC‘s Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey - Wave 6, Wave 10, Wave 11. The reports also highlight recommendations for Tech Sales Leaders and Marketers to be successful in business automation.

For more information on this report, please contact Dr. Lily Phan at lphan@idc.com. For media queries, please contact Miguel Carreon at mcarreon@idc.com  and Michael de la Cruz  at mdelacruz@idc.com.

*Asia/Pacific excluding Japan

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About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,300 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading tech media, data and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDCAP and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights.



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