In the United States, about one million tech jobs weren’t filled in 2020. This shows that there’s a big gap that needs filling in the tech space.

These demands in the tech world show that there’s still a great deal to be done. Below are four tech skills that are in need, and learning them can prove beneficial to you.

1. Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is among the fastest-growing technologies globally, and some experts refer to it as the Industrial Revolution of the 21st century. There’s been a lot of development in this field to create better nanomaterials for various uses.

The invention of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), scanning the tunneling microscope (STM), and fullerenes paved the way for nanotechnology. Today this nanotechnology is used in various fields like food and agriculture, pharmaceuticals, biomedical, construction, technology, and engineering.

In the next ten 10 or 15 years, experts say that the industrial applications and production of nanotechnology will surpass the $ 1 trillion mark. These numbers don’t come as a shock as nanotechnology plays a role in the world of CBD — another trend in today’s world.

Scientists dealing in both nanotechnology and CBD have been researching ways to improve the bioavailability of CBD products. Bioavailability, in simple terms, is the amount of CBD that enters your bloodstream.

To reach this goal, scientists have come up with “water-soluble” CBD oils. These “water-soluble” CBD oils aren’t water-soluble. Their CBD molecules are just shrunk to nano-size, allowing them to penetrate various membranes much more efficiently.

More studies need to be conducted, however, but the results are looking promising. It may not take long before we have “nano-fied” CBD products in the market.

Innovators in nanotechnology are constantly being sourced for by various industries because their applications are limitless.

2. Data Science and Analytics

These are two of the most consistently in-demand tech skills. Revenue from data applications and analytics is expected to increase to $19.4 billion by 2026.

Some of the heavily investing industries in data technologies are manufacturing, banking, and the federal government, with the overall investment said to reach$ 129 billion by 2022.

There’s been an increase in data technologies adoption, with 53% of companies beginning to adopt big data analytics into their operations to accelerate decision-making and improve accuracy.

It’s no surprise that data science is among the top jobs on LinkedIn’s emerging jobs report in all the report years.

3. Artificial Intelligence

AI is quickly changing a lot of business operations across various fields. The world of AI is an exciting one, especially for a programmer looking for something new to try.

Between 2019 and 2020, the rate of new AI experts being hired grew by 32%. This is primarily due to its increasing and widespread adoption in practically every industry.

Artificial Intelligence and Customer Service

AI specialists ranked first in LinkedIn’s emerging job spot in 2020 and are 15th on their 2021 list of “jobs on the rise.”

AI is a concept based on designing machine intelligence that is high enough to emulate human intelligence. It is, however, not to be confused with machine learning, whose idea is based on machines making sense of particular sets of data.

Skills that matter to artificial intelligence are mainly programming of various coding languages like Python and C++.

AI is now mainstream more than ever, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. More companies are looking for people with expertise in AI, specifically in automated speech recognition (ASR), natural language processing (NLP),) and automation.

Additionally, over 70% of C-level executives, according to a UiPath survey, are looking for non-technical employees with some AI skills and automation level. Another emerging AI trend is artificial intelligence for IT operations or AIOps.

This is combining machine learning and big data to automate development and production.

4. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

The collective term to refer to augmented and virtual reality is extended reality or XR. They became an essential part of entertainment when they first came into play, but now, XR technology is in several industries, including healthcare, advertising, marketing, and manufacturing.

According to Hired’s 2019 report for Software Engineers, the demand for both VR and AR engineers has gone up by an impressive 1,400%.

While these opportunities go up, the number of job searches has gone down, implying that the number of experts looking for jobs is smaller than the jobs available.

This represents an excellent opportunity for those who want to get involved in XR technology, and with the average salary for VR being $71,950  and AR $82,755, it may be worth checking out.

According to Statista, in 2016, XR’s market size was around $6.1 billion, but now, it’s expected to reach $72.8 billion by 2024. Many companies like NVIDIA, Facebook, Google, Snapchat, and HTC are among the top companies using XR technology.

Conclusion

All of the above are good technical skills, and learning any of them will set you on the path of a successful tech career. It simply comes down to what your likes are and what best fits your personality as an individual.