Microsoft Office, data analytics, virtual assistant top most-wanted job skills

It’s always good to be wanted. And, if you posses the key skills of data analytics,
Microsoft Office
, copy typing, or a virtual assistant, you are wanted very much. From just the previous quarter of 2019, employer demand has grown to 58% for data analysts, according to Freelancer’s Q3 2019 Fast 50 Report, which chronicles the world’s fastest growing and declining jobs on the global market place, and culls from posts from its more than 38 million users, 4.6 million of which are in the US.

Tech-related jobs are on the upswing, just as the US Labor Department reports a slow of 1.3% in the hiring of traditional jobs.

SEE: How to build a successful data scientist career (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Employers need skilled workers who can analyze and interpret data and identify emerging trends, as demonstrated by the bump from 1,114 to 1,770 data analytic jobs on Freelancer.com. 

Employers are clearly growing more confident in virtual assistants, a position which rose from the tenth to the second fastest-growing skill in demand. The leap from 7,925 to 12,329 job openings represents a 56% increase in the popular job, which includes tasks from data entry to social-media posting. Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) skills increased globally, despite a quarterly decline for Matlab and Mathematica, mechanical engineering, and algorithm.

“The demand from data analytics indicates more savvy businesses are seeking these highly specialized freelancers to help determine business decisions that increase revenue, improve operations, respond to emerging market trends and gain a competitive edge, while virtual assistants are streamlining processes and creating efficiencies and cost savings” Matt Barrie, Freelancer CEO and founder said in a press release.

The number one top freelancing jobs for Q3 2019 are for those skilled in data analytics, as businesses grapple with making sense of increasing volumes of data. The data analytic market is forecast to grow to $275 billion by 2023. Currently available jobs on Freelancer range from “developing trading strategies” to “understanding business trends.” Demand for data-processing skills (38.6%) remains strong, despite dropping to fourteenth place (It was fifth in Q2 2019.).

While big tech moves to create smarter AI-powered virtual assistants like Google Duplex,
Amazon Alexa
,
Microsoft Cortana, 
and Apple Siri for business and home admin, a human virtual assistant still (56%) holds much appeal, as it was second in most-wanted skills, rising from its previous position in Q2 2019 of tenth. The position calls for those who offer diversified skills; some “want ads” include customer service; others, social-media marketing and blog posting. Virtual assistant jobs hold appeal to those who like to work remotely, and can use the time to manage, not only the VA job, but whatever other projects they may have (or look for more permanent work). 

SEE: Managing remote workers: A business leader’s guide (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Microsoft Office has experienced a renaissance under CEO Satya Nadella, and it was the third most in-demand skill this quarter. Previously, demand for the skill had been in decline until it began to grow, starting in 2018. For Q3 2019, it rose a further 54%. Microsoft Excel skills are in the Fast 50, too, moving from twentieth to sixteenth place from Q2 2019 to Q3 2019.

Copy typing, the process of inputting and transforming raw data into a format more appropriate for processing or data cleaning, was in fourth place in the top 10 most in-demand skills and grew 53% (6,988 to 10,629 jobs).

If you don’t mind data entry/typing, the fifth position jobs are in transcription. Other emerging jobs to watch, said the report, are book writing and ghost writing, which cracked the top 25. The other emerging job is translation, “a variety of language skills were in hot demand in Q3 2019,” the report indicated. Russian translation is number seven of the most in-demand skills, with a 51% rise, English translation saw a 29% rise, followed by Spanish (27%) and French (25%).

Here are the top in-demand skills for Q3 2019:

1. Data analytics
2. Virtual Assistant
3. Microsoft Office
4. Copy Typing
5. Transcription
6. Word
7. Russian
8. Bookkeeping
9. Email handling
10. Customer support
11. Freelance
12. Data Entry
13. Customer Service
14. Data processing
15. Web Search
16. Excel
17. PDF
18. React.js
19. Book writing
20. English
21. Spanish
22. Internet research
23. Digital Marketing
24. French
25. BPO
26. 
    C++ Programming
    
27. Civil Engineering
28. Ardunio
29. Adobe Flash
30. Machine learning
31. Research Writing
32. Database programming
33. Swift
34. Programming 
35. Statistics
36. PCB layout
37. Mathematics
38. Electronics
39. Objective C
40. Shopping Carts
41. Microsoft Access
42. Computer security
43. Network administration
44. Report writing
45. Engineering
46. Electrical engineering
47. Statistical analysis
48. Algorithm
49. Mechanical engineering
50. Matlab and Mathematica

For more, check out Does a 30-hour work week make sense for your business? Lessons from Amazon and How to negotiate a flexible schedule with your company on TechRepublic. 

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