Data analysis has the added value of converting data into insights, which are significant observations or understandings that help guide actions and serve as input for generating new ideas.
Detecting repeating patterns, identifying trends, and finding relationships that are not necessarily obvious at first glance allows us to understand what the data says about reality, ultimately to make decisions and act upon it. Data is present across organizations. Knowing how to use it has potential benefits wherever this possibility is identified. Areas that can be improved through data analysis range from the “hard” ones, like accounting, to the “soft” ones, like human management.
Recognizing this opportunity, an increasing number of companies are seeking technicians and professionals with data analysis knowledge, beyond roles strictly tied to these functions. In recent years, there has been exponential growth in the demand for data management, processing, and analytics skills, as well as the programming languages used for these purposes (see graph).
Considering a broader context, the IT sector's impact on labor demand in Uruguay grew by 6.5 percentage points in just four years.
Considering the more than 196,000 job opportunities generated from the beginning of 2019 to March 2023, it is observed that this sector went from representing 9.9 % of labor demand in the first quarter of 2019 to 16.4 % in the first quarter of 2023. Within the Information Technology sector, the demand for positions linked to the Data Science and Analytics area went from being in fifth place in terms of job opportunities generated to becoming the second area of highest demand, after the Programming and Software Engineering area.
What jobs are in demand in Uruguay?
On one hand, there are profiles associated with data analytics, which encompasses the process of obtaining, managing, processing, and analyzing data. In this field are positions such as data analysts, engineers, and assistants, database administrators, and data analytics developers, among the most in-demand.
Data science is a more specialized field, consisting of building models (e.g., language models like ChatGPT) based on machine learning from data. These models not only allow for the analysis of existing data but also for prediction and decision-making based on the underlying patterns and relationships detected. In this field, the Data Scientist profile is the most in-demand.
The demand for knowledge related to data science has also seen substantial growth in Uruguay: concepts like machine learning and language models are appearing with increasing frequency in the textual content of job postings. From a structural perspective, it is noteworthy that 72 % of the job opportunities in the Data Science and Analytics field are directed towards highly qualified specialists.
This constitutes a distinctive characteristic compared to the general labor market, in which the main current of employment opportunities is directed towards operational positions of medium and low specialization (55 %).
