Argentina shows an unemployment rate of 10%. In return, there is a sector that is not being able to fill its vacancies and to retain professionals must pay salaries well above the market average.
This is the Knowledge Industry, which already employs about 102,000 people, a figure that far exceeds those of other items. But, in addition, this year alone will generate 14,000 new positions, according to the Permanent Observatory for the Computer Services Industry (OPPSI). Of this total, about half will remain uncovered.
If there are no changes, this problem will be aggravated year by year. Within the framework of a demand that far exceeds supply, the salaries offered by this activity are comfortably located above $ 100,000 per month, in the midst of a constant bid to attract talent.
"This Industry has not only become a generator of quality employment but its growth has been sustained in the last 15 years," they indicate from the Chamber of Software and Computer Services Companies (CESSI).
Despite generating valuable positions and paying very good salaries, companies in the sector find it difficult to find professionals.
"Digitalization and technological progress increase business orders, generating a mismatch between supply and demand in the labor market, says Alejandro Servide, director of Professionals and RPO of Randstad Argentina, who also points out that this phenomenon is happening at the level global.
"In Argentina, the balance of that gap is counted in thousands of positions that cannot be filled every year," he says. Similarly, Daniel Laco, from the CESSI Talent Commission, says: "There are thousands of vacancies annually and this increases the signatures of the war to capture and retain talents."
For his part, Miguel Terlizzi, from Hucap, says that "beyond the market shortage, there is a demand for a certain number of positions that has to do with the evolution of technology. There is a greater demand for machine learning, which is an area in full development; data scientists, big data and full-stack (web) programmers for front-end and back-end ".
How much the professionals earn 4.0
Analyzing the salary scale in the Knowledge Industry presents complexities, since conditions vary according to the type of contract (flexible, with telecommuting, in-house positions), the company in question (size and sector to which it belongs), level of required specialization and the greater or lesser shortage of that profile.
However, in all positions a common denominator is identified: they earn salaries well above the average.
"The wages paid by the industry to those in high demand positions vary greatly depending on the branch of activity. For example, it is not the same if a programmer works for a software company than for an oil company or an automobile company," Lapo explains.
As for the amounts, Servide, de Randstat, agrees: "The best paid positions have to do with the complexity, specialization of knowledge and offer available in the professional market with these knowledge and skills."
Terlizzi, from Hucap, adds another issue to consider: the value of the dollar. "The market is boiling like never before and the recent devaluations make the IT market move in real time to dollarized markets. All Latin America works for the US," he explains.
Within this framework, the Informatics Union, CESSI and Hucap and Ghidini Rodil consultants collaborated with iProUP to specify the most required positions and an average remuneration:
- Ecommerce: includes several profiles such as digital marketing, programming, design, content, search engine optimization (SEO), analytics, etc. The highest position (director) can earn $ 340,000
- Business Analyst: your position is to understand the business context to improve the processes of organizations. They can earn up to $ 110,000 per month
- Artificial intelligence: the UI indicates that it is the development personnel that generate a logic and train for the taking of actions from a specific database or sampling. Their salaries reach $ 130,000
- Virtual reality: includes animation, modeling, illustration or filming, and then development. Salaries can reach $ 100,000
- Business Intelligence: these profiles transform internal and external data into data to improve the company's decision making. They receive $ 150,000
- Web and multimedia designer: the experts in these disciplines are in charge of creating functional websites and interactive content. According to the agreement of the Information Union, its remuneration is $ 48,774, but it can reach up to $ 100,000
- Digital marketing: these profiles go to the "search" of consumers through online campaigns to specify sales. The salary of an analyst can be located at $ 95,000
- Cloud Computing: is contemplated as "Operating Systems Administrator" in the collective agreement, with a salary between $ 46,441 and $ 125,000
- Project Leader or Project Manager (PM): is responsible for maintaining the daily activities of the team, to ensure compliance with results, deadlines and quality. His salary ranges from $ 60,000 to $ 110,000 in some cases
- Computer security: by agreement there is the position of "Security Administrator" with a salary of $ 52,379. The UI seeks to broaden the scope of the same, since this item receives up to $ 100,000 per month. But an area chief can double that amount
- Data scientist: from mathematics, statistics and software, this professional can predict future consumer behaviors. It has not yet been incorporated into the UI agreement. Remuneration reaches $ 125,000
The Randstad executive says that the list of the best paid positions also includes "Software Architects, Developers, Mobile Developer, DevOps, Technical Leader and Data Scientist / DataEngineer".
For the secretary general of the Information Union, Ignacio González Lonzieme, "there are many positions that cannot be corseted" because they respond to tasks that are being modified and there are crosses between the roles.
However, from the union that groups the workers of the sector, positions framed in collective agreements that already have remuneration assigned were established. "Agreements are being signed with which we order a lot, although the idea is not to close. The regulation of the sector is in permanent construction and evolution," he says.
Along the same lines, Lapo says that within the industry "new jobs are constantly created and that will impact the training of people."
Talent shortage
The sources consulted agree on highlighting the difficulty of companies to fill positions. To the point that from the consulting firm Mercer point out that 6 out of 10 companies have talent retention as the biggest challenge. Especially if it's engineers, technicians and systems specialists.
From CESSI, Laco tells iProUP that within the software industry there is full employment and that the most demanded positions are "programmers, functional and systems analysts as well as testers", which are the programmers who test the software.
"In the local market, the profiles with the highest volume of demand vary according to the specific practice area. For example, in web programming, developers with experience in backend and frontend languages, mobile applications & Fullstack are sought. They are at the top of the profiles more required today, "says Servide.
In Infrastructure, the manager of Randstad Argentina emphasizes that the most required profiles are: "SysAdmin (System Administrators), DevOps, which fulfill the role of relating the development of software and its operation and Site Reliability Engineering".
On the other hand, a global study conducted by Experis, a ManpowerGroup brand specialized in professionals, reveals that Argentina is among the ten countries that suffer the most shortage of talent worldwide.
In another order, the last survey that the consultant carried out revealed that 52% of employers claim to have problems filling positions in the country.
Roberto Manguel, Managing Director of Experis at the local level, says that "Argentina is the country that presents the most difficulties at the regional level and, globally, is among the top 10".
"Electronic engineers are also among the most difficult positions to fill, as are cybersecurity experts, network administrators and technical support," says Manguel.
The question is far from being temporary. "Given how the technology sector evolves, it will be a long-term problem. In the next four or five years, demand will continue to grow," Terlizzi concludes.
