IT Industry Will Contribute 5.8m Jobs To Help Recovery

The IT industry will help with recovery from the global downturn by contributing around 5.8 million jobs over the next four years and could create around 75,000 businesses during that period, according to a study from analyst IDC sponsored by Microsoft.

The study releases late last week concludes that the IT employment rate will be 3 percent a year which is more than three times the rate of growth of the wider employment market. IT spending is also expected to increase 3.3 percent a year between 2009 and 2013.

“Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen transformative power in how investments in IT innovations foster economic growth,” said Robert D. Atkinson, Ph.D., founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “Continued innovation and investment in information technology will help jump-start recovery from the current recession and will significantly contribute to the growth of employment and new businesses.”

As the survey is sponsored by Microsoft, it also looks at the revenues generated by the IT giant and its partners, termed as the “Microsoft ecoystem”. The report states that Microsoft and the companies in its ecosystem will generate $535 billion (£334bn) in revenues in 2009 which will “remain in local economies”.

“In this fundamental economic reset, innovative technologies will play a vital role in driving productivity gains and enabling the creation of new local businesses and highly skilled jobs that fuel economic recovery and support sustainable economic growth,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “Countries that foster innovation and invest in infrastructure, education and skills development for their citizens will have a major competitive advantage in the global marketplace.”

The study also states that 6.1 million people are employed by Microsoft and its partners worldwide. End-user organisations also employ around 8.8 million IT professionals who work with Microsoft and software, products and services. The study also revealed that 42 percent of people working in the IT industry are part of Microsoft’s ecosystem.

Earlier this month, The BCS Chartered Institute for IT said that improving IT training and skills is more important than building new infrastructure when it comes to helping the UK tech industry recover.