Cloud computing to create more than 20,000 new jobs for Philly by 2015, not just in IT, says report

Cloud computing is projected to create 20,000 new jobs in the Philadelphia region across numerous industries by 2015, not just information technology, according to new analysis by analyst firm IDC and Microsoft.

The report’s findings indicate that professional services, education, process manufacturing and retail, in addition to information technology, are key industries that stand to see an uptick in job creation as a result of the efficiencies that accrue from cloud computing and cloud-based services, according to John Gantz senior vice president of Research at IDC.

Cutting across so many industries is a quick way to make the numbers seem fuzzy, but the report’s focus is more to suggest the opportunity for savings and hiring in other ways, despite efficiencies elsewhere.

That statistic has a twist, though. The report found that Philadelphia may not be drawing as many cloud-driven jobs as it could be, due to less IT spending as a share of total US spending in the sector.

From an analysis of cloud jobs as a percentage of Philadelphia’s share of the US workforce:

“Although this DMA [designated market area] has a good mix of verticals, especially professional services, education, and process manufacturing, its level of IT spending as a percentage of total U.S. spending is lower than its share of the total U.S. workforce, dragging its cloud jobs below its share of the U.S. workforce.”

The IDC report, “Cloud Computing’s Role in Job Creation,”analyzes global cloud-based job creation, and found that the cloud could drive approximately 14 million new jobs worldwide. China and India will account for about half of all new cloud-related jobs, according to the press release.

To learn more about cloud job creation by city, click here.

To read the full IDC report, a PDF is available here.

To learn more about how IDC defines cloud services click here.