Despite concerns of job losses in the computer industry, new study from the Linux Foundation shows that 57% of firms are adding their staff this year, with a concentration on the open source and Linux industries. Hilary Carter, the Foundation’s Senior Vice President of Research and Communications delivered the findings during her keynote lecture at the Open-Source Summit North America in Vancouver.
The majority of new hires are developers and IT managers, with a rising number of businesses spending resources for staff training. According to the Linux Foundation’s research, 70% of firms polled provide training opportunities to improve the skill sets of their existing technical employees in new technologies.
In addition, the study discovered that upskilling and certifications are regarded as more helpful than a university education in meeting technological demands. During the meeting, Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, stated that open source is countercyclical to tech sector trends and gave optimism. These findings offer a glimmer of optimism to IT workers who have been through a difficult era, underlining the need of continual learning and industry-relevant qualifications.
The need for talented IT employees remains high, especially in quickly growing sectors like cloud and containers, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, all of which rely heavily on open source and Linux technology.
The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNET.