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More Job Automation But More Jobs Too, Say U.S. Tech CEOs

Tech companies expect to increase their workforces, both human and machine

1 min read
More Job Automation But More Jobs Too, Say U.S. Tech CEOs
Illustration: KPMG

There’s good news on the technology job search front, according to preliminary results of a survey by consulting firm KPMG. The firm queried 138 U.S. tech CEOs, and 95 percent expect to increase the size of their workforces over the next three years. Some 55 percent expect to grow at least 6 percent. (The full report will be released in August.)

This growth in tech jobs for humans might have been even larger, however, but some positions will be filled by automation and machine learning systems: about three quarters of the tech CEOs expect automation and machine learning tools to replace at least 5 percent of their sales, marketing, technology, and manufacturing workforces.

Or, as the report from KPMG puts it:

“The majority of technology companies plan to increase their human workforce at least 6 percent over the next three years while adding cognitive systems to create a new class of digital labor that can enhance human skills and expertise.”

Bob Melk, president of job search firm Dice, told me that software engineers in particularl should benefit from this trend towards workforce automation and machine learning. Dice sees, he says, “a high demand for software engineers and software developers, representing 7.5 percent of all jobs posted on Dice.”

Does this mean tech companies are going to start issuing reports on their digital labor force?

Updated 15 July 2016

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