More Jobs & Investment Ahead; But Concerns Remain

As part of its annual Information Industry Summit, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) recently released a survey of 50 CEOs, vice presidents and general managers of leading digital content and publishing companies. The survey found strong positive signs regarding job and economic growth, along with a clear industry focus on “Big Data,” while suggesting that economic uncertainty remains.

Click through for findings from a survey of information industry CEOs, VPs and general managers, conducted by SIIA.

In the most significant sign of future growth, fully three-quarters (75 percent) of information industry executives say their company will have more employees in two years than it has today.

Additionally, over one-third (37 percent) of executives say they plan to acquire or invest in other companies in the next 12 months. In another positive economic sign, over half (55 percent) of those executives planning to acquire or invest say they intend to spend more on this activity than they have in previous years.

While the results show strong signs of growth, they also show that executives have concerns going forward. Thirty-six percent of executives say it is either “very likely” or “certain” that the challenge of finding skilled employees will impede growth opportunities. Meanwhile, the same percentage of executives cited global economic concerns as a top possible impediment to future growth.

“Our survey of executives shows confidence in job creation and accelerating interest in investments and acquisitions,” said Kathy Greenler Sexton, SIIA’s VP and general manager of the Content Division. “We view this as another sign that the industry is poised for strong forward growth and that it will continue to be an essential driver of the information economy.”

Sexton continued, “One meaningful cautionary note in our survey is the potential difficulty in finding skilled employees. Executives clearly want to hire more people, but there is a pervasive concern that finding the right employees could prove challenging.”

Another notable finding for the survey is the role of so-called “Big Data” in the future of information industry businesses.  When asked to rank the importance of a variety of business issues – from mobile and tablet publishing to moving content behind paywalls – nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of executives identified “data and analytics” as the most important business issue they face. No other business issue drew such a strong response from these executives.