It’s time to look at the most in-demand and highest-paying occupations that will be especially relevant in 2022. To compile this list, we used the number of jobs on the market, salary and unemployment rankings, and reports and analysis from well-known companies.

Before reading you can study our last year’s post “The most in-demand IT professions in 2021”. That included Data Analyst, Web Developer, Information Security Analyst, Python Developer, Database Administrator, Web designer (UI/UX), Mobile App Developer, DevOps Engineer and Data Scientist. And now on to a more current (albeit subjective) selection. Let’s go!

Information Security Specialist
In 2021, cybercrime increased 7-fold. Companies are losing money: $20 billion ($20,000,000,000!) – that’s how much this year’s mistakes in big business security systems cost. Experts predict that by 2031, losses will be $265 billion annually. Naturally, companies are trying to do something and are actively investing in security systems and their developers. Which means: ethical hackers, your way out!

In 2021, the number of available jobs for security analysts and engineers increased by 33%. And the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts steady growth in the field for at least 10 years to come. But that’s not even the most interesting part.

The founder of the Herjavec Group, which conducts surveys on cybersecurity employment, argues that the cybersecurity industry has simply zero unemployment in the global skills market in 2021. Meanwhile, the skills shortage is only growing – and will continue to do so.

According to a Dice analysis, cybersecurity salaries grew faster than other salaries in 2021, adding 16.3% on average.

Demand in the market exceeds supply. The entry threshold is high – there are both staffing shortages and active salary increases just to keep experienced people around. The personnel shortages that have surfaced over the year are enormous.

That said, according to Ziprecruiter, junior professionals here make over $86,000 a year.

On a per month basis, a Junior Cyber Security Analyst earns $7,224.

Senior earns $11,6748 or $9729 per month for the year.

System Analyst
Businesses always need systems analysts. Both during and after crises. This year is no exception. Business has enough problems. After all, business is those very public places, which are not allowed without QR, and the organization of public events, and other initiatives, in fact, requiring mass gatherings of people. Hundreds of thousands of businesses and legal entities simply shut down.

And getting out of the crisis hole is helped by systems and business analysts (true, if they are good; bad ones are the opposite). But there is a nuance. In the U.S., the average age of SAs and BAs is 43.2 years, and the average age of IT professionals in general is 28.

In the field of systems and business intelligence there is a lack of fresh blood: the threshold of entry into the profession is high, a specialist needs to understand all the nuances of business and markets. In most cases, people with experience in management or data analytics leave for BA. And demand is growing much faster than supply.

Systems analysts are in demand in medium and large businesses. 71% of people work at companies with more than 1,000 employees. But it was 2021 that saw a dramatic increase in the number of analysts hired for small businesses, from 50 people.

Mobile app developer
The mobile development market is growing at a tremendous rate-the pandemic and lockdowns haven’t hindered it. Whereas three years ago Statista estimated the global capitalization of mobile development at $1.3 trillion, today it has grown almost fivefold to $6.3 trillion. According to SensorTower, users spent more than $130 billion on mobile app and game purchases in 2021, a 19.7% increase over the previous year.

In 2022, mobile development will remain one of the most in-demand areas, with iOS and Android-growing in wages.

The entry threshold into the mobile app development profession is much lower than in systems analytics or infobusiness. June will be able to find a job right after the course. But because of this there is a problem – a large spread of salaries. Even with average positions it’s hard to decide. For example, Payscale estimates the median salary of a specialist at 69,000 dollars a year, and Indeed – 120,000.

DevOps
According to IT recruiters and developers at CodinGame, DevOps is the most in-demand specialty at the beginning of the year: devops was sought by 43% of recruiters in 2021. And according to DevOps Institute analysts, the numbers are even higher, with 53% of companies hiring devops in 2021.

Nothing has changed in December – but the shortage has only become more acute. On Indeed, the number of vacancies for DevOps has increased by 75% over the year. And on LinkedIn – by 50%. BusinessWire notes that DevOps is growing at a rate of 21% per year. And the pace will continue for at least the next 5 years.

The devops market has been hit by a pandemic. Companies have been primarily hiring people to help get out of the hole. The main goal is to grow, you have to fight for the vacated portions of the market, so the shortage of devops is growing. But at the same time, “overheating” on the employer side is growing.

Here, for example, is how they see the list of competencies at Flynt. To reach the fifth level in the picture, you need several years of experience in development or in administration, and also a huge amount of knowledge and practical skills. During the pandemic, the number of DevOps as a whole has grown, but it is still severely insufficient to cover the needs of the market. You can master the DevOps profession in our courses.

Database Administrator
The situation with the database administrator is very interesting. The market is growing at the usual pace. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that in 2021 the growth was “only” 8%. And it will continue to grow at about the same rate through 2030. Against the background of the other occupations in the piece, this is nothing.

But the unemployment rate for DBAs is very low, at just 1.7%. DBA is a demanded specialty, but not a high-demand one, so the influx of specialists here is lower than the growth of the market. In Western markets there are still enough database administrators, but recruiters are already pointing out that it is more difficult to find savvy people in 2021.

The reason is simple – companies are abandoning their own physical servers and moving to cloud services has affected not only Cloud Architects, but DBAs as well. Many companies have had to rebuild their database infrastructure.

AI/ML Specialists, Data Scientists
Here it’s worth showing right away the growth rate of the specialty. Here’s a comparison chart according to Career Carma:

344% growth in projections! While a specialty that shows more than 10% is considered well-developed. The market is growing exponentially. It is expected that in the next 5 years the hype will subside a bit and the need for AI engineers will stabilize, but right now there is just an acute shortage of specialists. Large companies are willing to take on junks, teach them everything, and pay big money at the same time.

According to McKinsey analytics, 57% of medium and large businesses have already implemented or are about to implement artificial intelligence and neural networks into their workflows. By comparison, that number is 45% in 2020.

AI/ML engineers are needed by big business, and there are tons of very cool jobs from Google, Facebook, Deloitte, Nissan, BBC, Amazon, and other market leaders in a variety of fields. The applications for AI in 2021 range from human resources to genetic engineering, and there are so many that it would take a separate article to list them all.

Of course, the brightest specialty remains Data Science. According to a study by BurtchWorks, if you are a Data Scientist or Data Engineer and change jobs, your salary will increase by 20%. The average increase is three times less, at 6.6%.