A sober look at the cloud jobs ‘explosion’
October 2, 2013
Grazed from Diginomica. Author: Jon Reed.
The hype about cloud job growth is in full swing. Exhibit A: in a June 2013 report, IDC predicted 14 million new cloud jobs by 2015. But what do these numbers really mean to the enterprise? After taking a swing at a couple of simplistic pieces on cloud jobs in last week’s hits and misses, it seemed a good time to hold my own feet to the fire and see what I could dig out. Aside from Amazon’s recent announcement of the planned hire of 70,000 seasonal full time employees, I don’t see many large companies in bulk hire mode of any kind – cloud-related or not.
Hiring news – mixed at best
A cynical reader commented on Joe McKendrick’s Forbes piece on IDC’s cloud jobs numbers: No technological advance creates more jobs than it eliminates. It’s impossible because the very point of a technological advance is to increase productivity…
That view is in line with my reactions to some corporate layoff announcements this week. In contrast to Amazon’s bulk hires, Siemens plans to cut 15,000 jobs. Then came the announcement that Toshiba is cutting half of its workforce (3,000 jobs), primarily from its struggling TV division. After noting a planned shift in Toshiba’s focus to ‘Ultra HD’ and LCD TVs, this phrase from a news report jumped out:
Cloud services will also be a major area of focus, and linking digital products and home appliances together. (As per the previous report, both divisions will join forces to make up the new Lifestyle Products & Services Group.)…
Read more from the source @ http://diginomica.com/2013/10/02/cloud-jobs-fact-fiction/