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Is the Data Job Market Coming Back to Life?

There was a spell of uncertainty for the job market that started in Q4 last year. Rising interest rates, VC funding coming to a halt and hesitation from candidates led to much slower growth for jobs in Data & Analytics. Some organisations had to reduce their number with redundancies, while others simply froze hiring indefinitely.

Based on the conversations I’ve had over the last two weeks, some organisations have been spurred on by optimism after the predicted recession might not hit as hard as first thought. In response, organisations have kick started their hiring again. Even if Q2 isn’t where the bulk of their hiring will be, data leaders are putting together plans for a very busy Q3.

I caught up last week with the VP of Data at a challenger bank in New York that had shared their hiring plans for several ML Engineers across the US with me back in November, but after a small round of layoffs in other areas of the business, scaling the data team was put on hold. Their adverts remained live to receive applications, with no real amount of movement until recently – April saw their applications triple!

This echoes what we’re hearing from candidates. There was a lot of speculation, starting at the tail end of last year, that changing job or working for a start up was going to be risky. From the changing attitude of candidates, there seems to be a consensus that businesses have hopefully made the layoffs that they needed to make and can stably move forward. As a result, the end of April and the start of May has seen an increase in candidates applying to our roles or reaching out to us directly to hear about the market.

This isn’t to say that the recession won’t happen, but it does indicate that people have had enough of sitting around and waiting.

I think we’re going to see a gradual rise back to form for the data job market. Both the UK and US saw improvements in their employment figures and jobs created in April. This is a crucial time for organisations to understand what they want to achieve for the rest of the year. With new budgets and the downturn of summer round the corner, May and June could be the very best time to hire this year as candidates also become more active.

About the Author

Ethan Simpkin

Talent Consultant

Ethan is a highly skilled consultant with us here at Orbition, specializing in data and analytics.

With a passion for technology and a natural talent for identifying top talent, he has become a valuable asset to both clients and candidates in the industry.Read more.