January 30 2022: The world’s top tech companies – Facebook (Now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet) – who are collectively called FAANG --  between them listed over 250,000 jobs in 2021,  rise of around 44% when compared to 2020.
Job listings related to ‘big data’ and ‘cloud’ increased by 57% in 2021, when compared to 2020, and jobs related to  ‘digital media’, digitalization’ and ‘mobile’ more than doubled. ‘AI’ and ‘industrial automation’ were other trending themes that witnessed a high number of listings.
Although the total number of job listings increased in 2021, FAANG companies took an average of over two months to close a job listing during the year. Lower job duration—the time elapsed between the day when a job was listed to the day it was closed —suggests that there is enough talent available to quickly hire for a role, while higher duration could mean less available talent or lack of specific skills.
These are the findings of data and analytics company GlobalData.
Says Ajay Kumar Thalluri, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData: “Companies need to engage and influence customers through social commerce experiences more than ever, and this likely influenced the high number of listings in areas such as digital media and mobile, which more than doubled in 2021.”
Adds Rupantar Guha, Principal Analyst at GlobalData: “Digital media and mobile themes witnessed unprecedented growth during the COVID-19 lockdowns, however, things are starting to slow down as the pandemic subsides. Tech giants are striving to retain users—especially the new subscribers added during the pandemic—and generate new content. They are also searching for talent to prepare for the emerging themes such as augmented reality (AR), metaverse, and Web 3.0.”
Thalluri adds: “By comparing 2021’s job duration to 2020, we can see that jobs are getting closed relatively faster. Job closures reduced marginally to 76 days in 2021, from 78 days in 2020. Reduced hiring in 2020 could be a possibility for relatively faster job closures. Roles related to ‘digital media’, ‘digitalization’, ‘internet of things (IoT)’, and ‘cybersecurity’ were closed faster in 2021. On the contrary, job closures for blockchain related roles took longer duration and remained largely unchanged between 2020 and 2021.” 
Meta (Facebook) is exploring verticals beyond gaming and social media in its reach towards the metaverse, developing content categories and ecosystems, as well as creating a marketing strategy for wearables and AR products. Meanwhile, Amazon Web Series is deepening its strategic relationship with Epic Games through metaverse tech.
Guha continues: “The metaverse is an emerging mega-theme and big tech is keen to take early positions in it. Being first movers will help them define the metaverses to refurbish their current offerings and meet tech-savvy consumers' evolving preferences. The metaverse is still conceptual, meaning early movers have the freedom to build it just as they envision. The companies that do that faster than their peers will set precedence and be the next market leaders. Those taking a wait-and-watch approach will risk losing out in the long run.”
Apple continued to post jobs requiring automotive experience for its electric car project ‘Titan.’ The company is hiring a data scientist role with experience in automotive ADAS.
Daniel Clarke, Thematic Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The infamous Apple car is still a long way off. At the very earliest, we might expect to see something by 2025, but it is very likely that it will be delayed beyond that date. Apple will have to partner with car companies to scale production, and most car companies will have problems scaling their own production. Further, Apple has also lost a sizeable chunk of their car project management team recently.”
Thalluri comments: “Meta is set to launch its first digital wallet as a standalone app in 2022.”