Brussels, Belgium / RankWire.AI / – According to a recent study published by the EU agency Eurofound, the European Union is projected to fall short of its Digital Decade goal of employing 20 million information and communications technology specialists by 2030. Reports from Emirates News Agency confirmed that despite ongoing expansion efforts, the EU will be short of this ICT employment target by 5 million workers. The Eurofound publication, titled IT Sector in Focus: Evolution of the EU Digital Workforce, pointed out that in most member states, primary and vocational education systems are struggling to keep pace with rising enterprise demand for advanced digital skills. As a result, many European firms increasingly depend on skilled labor migration from non-EU countries to address critical staffing shortages.
Despite this looming deficit, employment figures within Europe’s digital sector have shown significant long-term growth over the past decade. Data gathered by Eurofound reveals that the number of ICT specialists in the EU grew from 5.6 million in 2011 to 10.3 million in 2024, marking an overall increase of 81 percent. During the same period, ICT professionals’ share of total employment in Europe rose from 3 percent to 5 percent. Nevertheless, annual sector growth rates of 7 percent to 8 percent are still insufficient to bridge the gap needed to reach the 20 million target set for the end of this decade.
Regional disparities in digital employment remain stark across individual EU member states. Eurofound reported that ICT specialists constituted 8.6 percent of total employment in Sweden, 8 percent in Luxembourg, and 7.8 percent in Finland in 2024. Conversely, digital experts made up only 2.5 percent of the workforce in Greece and 2.8 percent in Romania. Growth patterns across the bloc have also varied widely; Estonia more than doubled its share of ICT workers from 3.4 percent to 7.2 percent between 2011 and 2024, while other member countries showed minimal increases over the same period.
Limited Domestic Education Capacity Pushes Firms to Rely on International Talent
Surveys conducted among European enterprises in 2024 revealed that 57 percent faced severe challenges when trying to fill open IT roles. The most acute shortages are seen in senior engineering positions and specialized fields such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, generative AI, and cloud infrastructure. To bridge these gaps, companies have increasingly recruited from outside the EU, leading to a rise in non-EU ICT specialists from 9.2 percent in 2021 to 11.9 percent in 2024.
Gender imbalance remains a significant obstacle to expanding the EU’s digital talent pool. Eurofound’s findings show that in 2024, female ICT professionals represented less than one in five specialists across the 27 EU member states, with a 19 percent share. Additionally, the gender pay gap within the broader ICT sector was nearly 20 percent in 2022, exceeding the economy-wide average of 13 percent. Researchers emphasized that underrepresentation of women limits the potential of Europe’s digital workforce, constraining diverse perspectives essential for innovation and growth.
Sector-Specific Growth in Software Consulting and Employment Quality
While ICT roles generally offer above-average salaries, advanced skills training, and high employment standards, these factors alone cannot resolve the ongoing labor shortage. The report highlights that, with the EU predicted to miss its 2030 ICT employment goal by 5 million, addressing this shortfall will demand coordinated policy measures aimed at boosting domestic educational capacity and facilitating intra-EU labor mobility. The study’s data synthesis combined quantitative analysis with insights from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and LinkedIn Economic Graph’s professional analytics.
European policymakers and industry leaders are increasingly under pressure to realign national vocational training frameworks with the evolving demands of the digital economy. Eurofound concluded that neglecting domestic training development will heighten reliance on external labor markets, jeopardizing the broader digital transformation goals for Europe. As member states work to expand their local training programs, boost female participation in technical fields, and maintain competitiveness in the global tech sector, regulatory bodies continue reviewing workforce strategies to support these objectives.