Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1324081
3 While the study doesn't detail what (if anything) organizations are doing to relieve increased employee stress, it does show that businesses are paying IT professionals more. The 2019 report found that worldwide salaries for IT workers went up by an average of $5,000. It's unclear how much of that money can be attributed to skills gaps, but respondents who said they received a raise because they "added new skills" reported an average salary increase of nearly $12,000— more than twice the overall average—indicating that, in today's climate, IT skills improvement can translate into higher earnings. Learning new skills appears to pay off, but what specific skills should developers and data scientists study in order to maximize the benefits? That question can be answered in a lot of ways, but one viable approach would be to look for skills that are both 1) in high demand and 2) rare among other cloud practitioners. By that measure, building machine learning skills should be a top priority for developers and data scientists. Demand is high—in the Global Knowledge report, 38% of IT decision-makers cited "AI, cognitive computing, and machine learning" as a key investment area for 2019. According to Grand View Research, the worldwide machine learning market was valued at $6.9 billion in 2018 and is projected to expand at a 43.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), reaching $96.7 billion by 2025. 3 The supply of machine learning skills is low. Returning to the Global Knowledge report, "artificial intelligence and machine learning" was identified as a top 10 challenge area for finding qualified talent. More than half of surveyed IT professionals said their "AI, cognitive computing, and machine learning" skills were "somewhat low" or "low." Only 22% assessed their abilities as "somewhat high" or better—and just 9% described their skills as "high." With skills both highly desirable and rare, machine learning is an area developers and data scientists should strongly consider to help them transform the IT skills gap into a golden opportunity for their careers and their organizations. Deciding to take this route is only the first step in a larger journey, however. The next step is finding the right training resource.