IT sector in focus: Evolution of the EU’s digital workforce

Digital skills are becoming a transversal requirement in most occupations and sectors and a precondition of being able to work in nearly all faster-growing, knowledge-intensive sectors. In the vanguard of our digital transformation are those with advanced information technology (IT) skills and qualifications. These individuals develop software, manage network security, and research and develop new solutions in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and other emerging technologies. The EU-27 is growing its ranks of such specialists but not at the required speed. Consequently, the contribution of IT activities to economic growth in the EU-27 has been underwhelming relative to that in other advanced economies. This report addresses the challenges for the digital workforce around employment and quality of work that need to be confronted if the EU-27 is to realise its ambitious digitalisation targets.

Huge investment is being committed to the EU’s digital transformation. There are generous EU and national subsidies available across an abundance of schemes and initiatives, especially in high-skill areas. Major initiatives at the EU level include the network of European digital innovation hubs, the Cybersecurity Skills Academy and the development of the EU’s AI gigafactories. The Digital Decade policy programme 2030 has set the policy framework for these investments. 

As regards the labour market, this programme has set the objective of having 20 million information and communications technology (ICT) specialists – a grouping covering several IT-related occupations – in employment in the EU by 2030. IT employment is growing fast, but this very ambitious target is unlikely to be met at current growth rates. Mobilising extra sources of supply of digital talent is therefore becoming more urgent. This is reinforced by changing technological and geopolitical circumstances, notably the expanding possibilities of AI, increasing cybersecurity threats and the importance of the EU developing its digital independence and ‘sovereignty’. 

The skill demands associated with these challenges are skewed to higher-level qualifications. Gaining these skills requires many years of post-school academic training supplemented by further education and on-the-job learning. The pipeline of these skills is constrained. 

The number of young people electing to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics, while increasing, is still not enough, and some of those who do pursue such studies are drawn by higher pay in other sectors or other countries. Women remain under-represented in the ICT sector. By most accounts, the growth in demand for the IT workforce, combined with rapid technological change, is outpacing the ability of our education systems to equip sufficient individuals with the required skills. 

• IT employment is growing fast in the EU (with an annual growth rate of 7–8 % compared with an overall employment growth rate of just over 1 %), but from a modest base. ICT specialists accounted for 3 % of EU-27 employment in 2011 and 5 % in 2024. There are very wide differentials in the share of ICT specialists in total employment across EU Member States – ranging from 2.5 % in Greece to 8.6 % in Sweden. 

• Growing demand means widespread shortages of ICT specialists. In 2024, among firms with open IT vacancies, 57 % reported difficulties in filling the positions. Labour shortages are especially acute for senior roles and highly specialised roles in cybersecurity, AI / generative AI and cloud computing. 

• Education and vocational education and training systems are failing to meet current and projected employment demand in most Member States, according to EU-level employer surveys and national correspondent inputs. 

• Labour migration from non-EU countries has become a primary, and increasingly important, driver for satisfying the high employer demand for ICT specialists in the EU, outpacing the contribution from intra-EU labour mobility. 

• Quality of work and employment in IT is higher than average across nearly all dimensions, notably earnings and skills, according to European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) data. 

• Wide gender gaps in IT employment are persistent and are closing at a slow pace. Fewer than one in five (19 %) ICT specialists in the EU-27 were women in 2024. Gender pay gaps in the broader information and communication sector were just below 20 % in 2022, compared with 13 % for the workforce in general. 

• Sharp divergences by gender are also observed across different job quality dimensions. Female ICT specialists are much less likely to consider themselves fairly paid for their work, have less access to paid training, are exposed to higher levels of work intensity and adverse social behaviours, and have less influence over how their work is organised. Outcomes like these may be discouraging women from entering the field.

• The Digital Decade employment target of 20 million ICT specialists by 2030 is unlikely to be met. At the current rate of growth, the EU will fall short by some 5 million workers. 

• The explanation for labour and skills shortages in IT is on the supply side (that is, education, including further and postgraduate education, and training, including on-the-job training) and not related to working or employment conditions. According to EWCS data, ICT specialists in the EU report better-than-average job and employment quality across all dimensions, but especially pay and skills. 

• Restrictive immigration policy elsewhere is likely to have made Europe a more attractive location for experts from non-EU countries, including in ICT specialisations with high global demand. There is suggestive evidence that this may already be happening. At the same time, limited intra-EU mobility of ICT specialists shows that there is a potential to mobilise existing EU tools such as EURopean Employment Services (EURES) and Erasmus+ to meet skills shortages. 

• Closing the gender employment gap in IT is not only a matter of equity but also a matter of economic necessity. In a context of labour shortages, failing to attract women means that the EU is operating with less than three quarters of its potential talent pool of ICT specialists. It is also limiting the diversity of perspectives in shaping technologies that increasingly influence all aspects of society, in and outside work.