Singapore emerges as most data literate globally

However, just 24% of the global workforce are fully confident in their ability to read and work with data

BY Nurhuda Syed 27 Oct 2018

Asia Pacific recorded the highest increase in the importance of data in the last five years – moving faster than the US and EMEA.

Despite that, only one in ten companies have made changes in the way they use data and only 20% are willing to pay higher salaries to employees who are data literate, according to Qlik.

Singapore emerged as the most data literate nation globally in the survey, edging out countries in Europe – the region which holds the highest rate of data literacy. In APAC, Singapore is trailed by India, Australia and Japan.

While the majority of business decisionmakers feel it is vital for employees to be data literate, just 24% of the global workforce reports being fully confident in their ability to read, work with, analyze and communicate with data.

Further aggravating this skills gap, while two-thirds of companies (63%) are planning on hiring more data-literate employees, business leaders have been unwilling to commit resources to improve the data literacy of their workforce. Only 34% of firms currently provide data literacy training, and only 36% are willing to pay higher salaries to employees who are data literate.

Additionally, there is a gap between how companies perceive the importance and relevance of data, and how they are actively increasing workforce data literacy. While 92% of business decisionmakers believe it is important for employees to be data literate, just 17% report that their business significantly encourages employees to become more confident with data.

The study also found that nearly all business leaders acknowledge that data is important to their industry (93%) and in how their company currently makes decisions (98%). Shockingly, just 8% of firms have made major changes in the way the data is used over the past five years.

“While companies pay strong lip service to the relevance and importance of data literacy to their business, their willingness to commit resources for data literate employees and evoke change to allow for data-driven decision making is lacking,” said Jordan Morrow, Global Head of Data Literacy at Qlik.