The number of unfilled IT positions even exceeds the pre-coronavirus level. In 2019, 124,000 remained unfilled. The pandemic then slightly alleviated the shortage in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, 86,000 positions for IT specialists were open, compared to 96,000 a year ago. On average, companies spend 7.1 months searching for a suitable candidate for a vacant position. Bitkom surveyed 854 companies from various industries for the study.
"We are experiencing a structural shortage of skilled workers in the IT labor market. The shortage of IT specialists is increasingly affecting companies and will worsen dramatically in the coming years,"
says Bitkom President Achim Berg.
"Demographic change is leading to significantly fewer young people with IT qualifications entering the job market, while at the same time, more older people are leaving relevant professions. The shortage of skilled workers is becoming the main obstacle to digital transformation."
Only 8 percent of companies consider the supply of IT specialists to be sufficient, while 74 percent report a shortage. Seventy percent even expect the problem to worsen in the future, and only 2 percent expect it to improve.
IT specialists from Russia and Belarus as a solution?
Hiring refugee IT experts from Russia or Belarus could help. 37 percent of the companies surveyed with open IT positions would hire specialists from these two countries, provided they had previously undergone an official security check. However, so far, only one in every hundred companies surveyed has actually done so. Berg says:
"Especially now, we need to stabilize Ukrainian IT providers and nearshore service providers through partnerships and retain them in the digital value creation networks. At the same time, we should bring security-cleared IT experts from Russia and Belarus to Germany and integrate them permanently, both economically and socially."
