IT VENDOR & CONSULTING
The increasing shortage of bilingual IT professionals with relevant expertise has led to the most talented candidates receiving job offers from multiple companies. This is especially true in the cloud computing sector where competition for specialists in this area is intensifying. The entry of several foreign-affiliated cloud computing start-ups into the Japanese market is certainly a contributing factor, but it is also important to note that SaaS and IaaS services only recently began seeing frequent use. As there was already a shortage of professionals with extensive experience with these services, such professionals who are also proficient in English are even more scarce.
With the Tokyo Olympics less than three years away, IoT development and commercialisation efforts are rapidly becoming more widespread and the demand for data analysts and scientists continues to increase. For many years an increase in demand for AI and IoT specialists was predicted, but only now are we beginning to see real demand from industries that utilise these technologies. However, despite the large number of researchers and developers in the AI sector, there is still a shortage of engineers working to commercialise this technology and demand for these professionals far outweighs supply.
This imbalance between supply and demand has led to a notable increase in the salaries that companies are offering to candidates. For sales engineers, technical consultants, and project managers, salary levels typically increase by an average of 10-15% when changing jobs. In addition to offering competitive salaries to acquire talented professionals, companies can also gain an advantage over competitors by providing flexible work-style initiatives such as the option to work from home, while also reducing the amount of time required to complete the recruiting process.
IT FINANCE
2017 has seen a number of insurance companies introduce new CRM systems while many are also moving towards cloud platforms. As a result, demand and accordingly compensation for IT specialists with experience in these areas is increasing, particularly for project managers, business analysts, and technical architects. Demand for data scientists and data analysts has also been high and these professionals have seen some of the most competitive salary increases.
While many global securities firms aggressively downsized from mid-2016 to mid-2017, there has been a return of headcount to Tokyo. This is especially true for development roles and business aligned support roles even though hiring has remained fairly steady for the latter. Compensation increases for changing jobs are healthy to attract and retain top talent and minimise the risk of counteroffers in an increasingly candidate-short environment.
The entry of several fintech firms into the Japan market has led to increased demand for web and mobile developers in that space. Such professionals often place greater emphasis on considerations such as stock options and more flexible work styles, but the best talent still gravitates towards the highest compensation.
IT COMMERCE
2017 saw a notable increase in the demand for data scientists, data analysts, and business intelligence professionals as these areas play an essential role in company growth and competitiveness. As a result, there was a high degree of active recruitment in the areas of general manufacturing, consumer goods, retail, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. Connecting real and e-commerce customer data flow seems to be the challenge companies are currently facing.
There was also growth in the number of hires in artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML) and strong demand in these areas is expected to continue into 2018 and beyond.
The industry-wide shortage of Japanese-English bilingual candidates specialised in mission-critical systems, business applications, and state-of-the-art technology is a trend that has been ongoing for several years. This has led an increasing number of companies to look overseas for talent, often resulting in technical skills being prioritised over language ability.
IT ONLINE
Recruitment figures in 2017 for mobile apps, games, and web/e-commerce development in the online sector exceeded those of the previous year. Given the importance being placed on technical skills, an increasing number of professionals in the online sector are now changing jobs every two to three years with the aim of further developing their skills.
Data science, business intelligence, and data related opportunities continued to increase across all areas of the online business including gaming, SNS, e-commerce, and mobile apps.
While getting a higher salary is still the main factor that determines acceptance of an offer, we have also found that an increasing number of candidates in the online sector are beginning to consider and place more importance on other factors such as office culture, state-of-the-art technology, stock options, and other benefits.
IT CONTRACT
Contract recruitment activities increased in 2017 for web technologists and open source programmers. This can be attributed in part to the expansion of the e-commerce market and the emergence of the gaming domain. As companies in these industries focused on expanding their business portfolio, recruiting acted as a key component in many firms’ 2017 mission. By utilising contract employment to avoid over hiring, many companies increased contract recruitment activities by placing greater importance on candidates’ technological expertise. This led to a much more flexible approach, and many companies set aside traditional requirements such as native-level Japanese proficiency to hire skilled foreign professionals.
DevOps was also heavily emphasised in 2017. As these specialists are essential for product development, operations, and stabilising heavy traffic, we expect the increase in demand to continue for candidates with expertise in both server-side development and infrastructure operations. As demand intensifies in 2018, we anticipate a continued increase in the shortage of bilingual technology professionals, especially those with experience in AI, DevOps, or second-tier/emerging programming languages.
2017 saw a notable increase in demand in all areas of infrastructure services, including, but not limited to, helpdesk, server support, database administration, security analysis, project coordination, and project management. The contract market was very competitive as a result, and we expect this trend to continue in 2018, primarily in banking, insurance, IT consulting, and telecommunication areas. Salary levels for most positions are also expected to rise in 2018 with an emphasis on cloud computing, end-user support, and telecom engineers. This is mainly due to companies’ desire to further stabilise network infrastructure by utilising cloud computing and strengthening information security and administration.
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