IT and Healthcare: Driving Sectors Of The World Economy

After 9 months since the pandemic breakout, it is becoming more evident that we are unlike to get a V-shaped recovery. Some observers, such as Forbes, indicate a more likely “K-shaped recovery trend”: it means that some sectors are suffering a great deal while others are even benefiting from this difficult contingency. Oil, Automotive, Tourism, Restaurants and Hospitality industries have taken the worst hit. Indeed, Automotive won’t be able to get the pre-crisis growth rate (3,6%) immediately, while International Tourism could decline by 60% to 80% this year, resulting in a revenue loss of over one trillion dollars. However, there are also industries that did not suffer so much from this crisis, representing interesting markets for talented professionals looking for a next move in their career. First of all, IT & Digital and Healthcare & Pharma. IT came from 5 years of unstoppable growth (CAGR 4,56%) and it will achieve 5,57% in 2021, while CAGR in healthcare is estimated at around 5% from now to 2023, but with the growing expenditure caused by Covid-19, it would not be surprising if this rate will be even higher.

IT and Digital Industry

The lockdown and social distancing have been strong drivers of IT and digital sectors. The smart working success is just an example. Thus, we have experienced a vertical growth of hiring demand for electronic engineers, software engineers, net and applications developers, analysts, as well as for professionals like social media managers and digital marketing experts. From our analysis in all the countries we operate, hiring demand for these professionals is very high, but there are still differences between geographical areas. In the European Union, the IT engineers account for 24% of the hiring demand for engineers, meaning 24 out of 100 “hunted” engineers; the percentage grows exponentially concerning analysts in the industry (49%). Asia and South America present a somewhat different picture. The hiring demand for IT analysts increases with respect to EU: 61% in India and China and 53% in Brazil.

Moreover, it emerges that “metropolitan areas” are the heart of IT development; in fact, IT profiles are mostly required in cities and great urban areas. The most popular areas in EU are Paris, London, Madrid, and Berlin; following by Warsaw and Lisbon representing 19% of the total European demand. Looking at Asia, the situation gets even more extreme. India is the first hiring country, especially in Hyderabad, New Delhi and in the Bengaluru Area, while China presents a more particular situation: in the Capital Beijing, there is quite a high demand for IT professionals, like consultants, web designers and managers, but it’s lower for engineers (meaning software engineers, hardware engineers and big data engineers), while in Shangai it’s the opposite. Finally, in Latin America, some countries are experimenting a very high hiring demand for IT and digital talented managers: Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro areas are at the top of the ranking and they cover the 45% of the demand for IT professionals in Brazil.

In addition to the above described, the pandemic has impacted the international mobility trend of IT experts, too. This phenomenon was growing over the last few years in order to compensate the IT skill shortage in the markets. And now? For 12% of the 350 companies interviewed by PwC the pandemic will trigger a fundamental rethink on mobility, and 20% believed that the number of international moves will decrease in the future as a result of this crisis.

Healthcare and Pharma Industry

Healthcare too is experiencing a consistent leap forward this year due to Covid-19. Unlike IT, healthcare includes many specializations and hiring demand mainly focuses on professionals like area managers, lab managers, business managers, researchers and complementary services managers. The industry has grown a lot, but not evenly: research, business development and sales positions, registered a very high hiring demand, when compared to other business lines, such as medical services. The EU follows this trend: research, business development and sales are the main drivers of the industry since they amount to 16% and 34.5% of demand for healthcare professionals respectively. Researchers are wanted in Paris (+4% of the European average demand), while business developers in London (+1% of the European average demand). London is on top also for health services (such as family doctor accessibility, services for not self-sufficient people, drug delivery, medical and pharmaceutical supplies access and medical volunteer care) together with Milan, Warsaw, Munich, Geneva and Zurich; the same cities and countries are also on top for sales services. Conversely, in Latin America and in Asia hiring demand drops with respect to Europe; the only exception is the research field, that marks a high hiring demand in Asia and a moderate one in South America, probably related to the vaccine race. In fact, researchers account for 50% of the hiring demand in healthcare in India and China and for 41% in Brazil. However, in China we record a high or very high demand in all businesses mentioned, while India is on top only for some categories like sales and health services. In Latin America, hiring demand is generally low, but Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are an exception since we register a high hiring demand in those areas.

“This has been a challenging year for everyone. – Veronika Hejduková, Grafton Business Model Development Manager said – As we saw, Covid-19 has affected industries differently. We registered that IT&Digital and Healthcare&Pharma suffered the least. However, in this scenario we at Grafton especially feel the responsibility to unlock unexpected opportunities for our candidates and talented managers. Mapping the changes affords looking forward in time at bigger challenges.  Our consultants are experts on their field, giving candidates and clients a clear overview and in-depth knowledge, and strategic counseling on specific markets. We believe that people make the difference in a challenging and ever-changing context. And thanks to this approach, we are able to find the people who will provide the value the company is looking for”.