I think 'big data' 'technicians' (who can apply data mining technologies) are needed 'urgently'. Programmers (coders), developers/builders, problems solvers are also needed. But big data miners who can see inter-relationships among 'data' and 'real world events' (phenomena) need to be trained. People who understand social media/networking principles/theories may have more early advantages but peolple who are multi-disciplinary trained (postgraduates) seem more fitting. Salary as usual can attract good problemsolvers.