Hope your week1 in 2022 went great.  From a labor market perspective, the week1 in 2022 has been extremely interesting.  Here are some strategic highlights

• Andreessen Horowitz announced that they had raised well over 9 Billion USD to invest in new tech companies
• Even in the days of remote work, Facebook signed the largest ever (as per Downtown Austin trends) lease in Austin-Texas
• Innovators in China are upset about the Government regulations on various internet-based businesses.  The internet companies, including the local companies, seek to change this approach as the government approach can limit innovation and new talent starting businesses.  For example, Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, was fined 44 times in 2021 on various content related controls
• A Kyodo news survey in Japan showed that over 84% of the major companies in Japan economic growth
• Firms in South East Asia have launched robust early career talent programs, and our initial analysis and interview show this will be their top priority in 2022.  Companies like GoTo in Indonesia have a variety of programs.
  • ENGINEERING BOOTCAMP: 1-month discipline exercise on Core Engineering module, followed by DevOps, Android, iOS, Security, Design, and Data Science
  • GOSQUADS TECH: 12-week internship program for tech students, internship ranges from Software Engineering, Data Science to Business Intelligence
  • GoXplore: 10- to 12-week learning program.  In this program, people are challenged to complete assigned projects, learn firsthand to do routine tasks, and embrace the widest learning adventure
• There is some initial evidence that the Indian immigrant tech talent in the US is willing to relocate to India as the Startup funds and opportunities are growing.  For reference, 40+ unicorns were created in India in 2021 compared to around 10 in 2020
• Norway continues to emerge and build core competence on Green-tech and Green-tech is absorbing and creating digital talent
• Post-Brexit Amsterdam is winning in areas of Fintech, Technology, and Media.  Just last week, Roku announced an office opening in Amsterdam
• Poland and Romania are critical Eastern European hubs that enjoy the most attention and is gaining new officer setups
• Manila is trying hard to gain the Software talent hub traction.  They have about 20,000 plus software engineering talent and are working to create more talent
• Locations like Bangkok have made reasonable progress and have built several local companies
• This week, a new vote of confidence in Pakistan when Ericsson decided to invest in Pakistan on various 5G research and tech training.  It is essential to leverage Pakistan’s supply-demand crunch in technology and digital.  Hopefully, the next five years will see growth in this geo
• Google put money in SafeBoda, a venture-backed company with investors that include GoVentures (GoJek), Allianz X, Unbound, Beenext, and Justin Kan, and will help drive SafeBoda’s growth in Uganda and Nigeria, scaling its transportation-led app to offer new payment and financial services solutions for its expanding set of customers: passengers, drivers, and merchants. Safeboda is a good concept and an emerging trend in low-income countries.  Check it out when possible!
• What do you get when you mix Google, Amazon, Uber, and Spotify – That is Russia’s Yandex.  Though most Yandex is in Russia, it is a Dutch Registered company.  Yandex is expected to fight for talent across Europe
• Israel continues its dominance in Cybersecurity.  Just last week, Google acquired Israel cybersecurity form Siemplify
• Even small countries like Bhutan are launching labor market databases.  This is an excellent sign and may help companies find talent
• The potential of places like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh remain unexplored, and this may change as regional cooperation improves
• Estonia is trying hard to get established in the areas of Energy Storage and CryptoCurrency
• In late December/early Jan, economists at National Bank Financial pointed out Canada’s expected population increase of more than 400,000 in 2021.  The aim is for 411,000 in 2022 and 421,000 in 2023.  By 2021, the Canadian population will be 38.1 million – about 2.6 million more people in just six years!
• Partnerships between Japan and Mongolia are expected to transform this 3.6 million person nation.  Last month, the Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) opened a very innovative English language learning lab.  Even though numbers are small, companies must track all these locations

The war for talent is real.   In these complex and dynamic labor market conditions, competition may come in from all corners of the globe.  Understanding the job families to focus on will be very important.  Any company that is digitally transforming needs to prioritize the following job families.  We analyzed over 150 million job postings from the last three years and arrived at this stack that is mainly sought by rapidly transforming Enterprise companies

• Software Design and Development and Testing
• Big Data that includes roles such as Data Engineering
• Analytics
• Data Science- AI and ML
• Solutions Architect (as the Cloud solutions expand, this is becoming important)
• DevOps
• Cybersecurity
• Network Engineering
• Robotic Process Automation (HR can create entry-level tech talent through training here)
• Cloud Support Roles
• Saas Platform roles (Such as Salesforce Admin, for example)
• Digital Sales and Inside Sales
• Digital Marketing
• Digital HR
• Digital Finance and Procurement

Companies can only survive and grow the talent needed through a rigorous early career talent strategy.   Recruiters should specialize in early career hiring.,  The needs and sentiments of early career talent across the globe are different.   Targeted skills training early in universities and community colleges are crucial to winning this global talent war.  Here are the skills, Draup recommends for considerations for an Early career (through our filtered analysis on Early career job postings)