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Information and communication technology (ICT) has fast become integral to the functioning of businesses. With emerging complex technologies and evolving internet usage, businesses demand skilled ICT specialists to adapt to the digital and data-intensive environments. 

Last year, almost 1 in 10 (9.5 %) enterprises in the EU reported that in 2021 they recruited or were trying to recruit ICT specialists and 62.8 % of those enterprises had difficulties in filling those vacancies.

When considering the size of the enterprise, the proportion of enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit but faced difficulties was substantially higher among large enterprises (72.2 %). Still, the shares were also high among medium-sized enterprises (63.7 %) and small enterprises (59.9 %). 

 

Bar chart: Enterprises having hard-to-fill vacancies for ICT specialists by size class, % of enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit, EU, 2021

Source dataset: isoc_ske_itrcrs

 

Among EU members, in Slovenia (78.0 %), Czechia (77.0 %) and Germany (76.6 %), over three-quarters of the enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists had difficulties in filling ICT vacancies. Luxembourg (70.9 %) and the Netherlands (70.4 %) followed closely, with a significant proportion of businesses facing the same difficulties.    

The lowest shares were registered in Spain (32.8 %), Bulgaria (46.0 %), Poland (46.5 %), Slovakia (51.4 %), and Cyprus (54.5 %). Difficulties encountered by enterprises when trying to recruit ICT specialists were lack of applications, lack of relevant qualifications and experience and high salary expectations. 

 

Bar chart: Enterprises that recruited ICT specialists, with and without difficulties in filling vacancies, % of enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit, 2021

Source dataset: isoc_ske_itrcrs

For more information

Methodological notes

  • France: break in the time series due to the implementation of the statistical unit enterprise.
  • Data come from the 2022 Community survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises and refer to all enterprises with at least 10 employees or self-employed persons (in NACE Rev. 2 sections C to J, L to N and group 95.1). Further methodological information related to the survey can be found here.
  • The ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises survey collects data about different ICT topics with different reference periods. For the topic of recruitment of ICT specialists, the reference period is the calendar year (2021) prior to the survey year (2022). For the ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises survey, data in Eurostat’s database are organised according to the survey year and the results above can be found under year 2022.

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