Brussels, Belgium / RankWire.AI / – According to an in-depth analysis published by the European Union research organization Eurofound, the European Union is on track to fall short of its Digital Decade objective of employing 20 million information and communications technology specialists by 2030. Reports verified by Emirates News Agency confirmed that despite years of continuous growth in employment within the regional tech sector, the EU is projected to miss this target by 5 million workers. The report, titled IT Sector in Focus: Evolution of the EU Digital Workforce, highlights that the education and vocational training systems in most European countries are not keeping pace with the current and anticipated demand for specialized digital skills. As a result, companies across the bloc increasingly depend on recruiting skilled labor from outside the EU to fill critical staffing gaps.
Despite these challenges, overall employment figures in the European digital sector have shown significant long-term growth over the past decade. Eurofound’s data reveals that the number of ICT specialists in the EU grew from 5.6 million in 2011 to 10.3 million in 2024, an increase of 81 percent. During the same period, the share of ICT professionals in total European employment rose from 3 percent to 5 percent. Nevertheless, annual growth rates of 7 percent to 8 percent are not sufficient to bridge the gap needed to reach the 20 million threshold set by European policymakers for the end of this decade.
There are still notable disparities in technology employment across individual EU member states. Eurofound’s report states that in 2024, ICT specialists made up 8.6 percent of total employment in Sweden, 8 percent in Luxembourg, and 7.8 percent in Finland. Meanwhile, digital specialists represented just 2.5 percent of the workforce in Greece and 2.8 percent in Romania. Growth patterns across the region also vary considerably. Estonia, for example, more than doubled its ICT workforce proportion from 3.4 percent to 7.2 percent between 2011 and 2024. Conversely, other countries recorded minimal percentage increases during the same timeframe.
Education System Limitations Contribute to Heavy Reliance on International Talent
Surveys conducted across European companies show that 57 percent of firms attempting to fill IT vacancies in 2024 faced severe difficulties. The most significant shortages are in senior engineering roles and specialized technical fields such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, generative AI, and cloud computing infrastructure. To bridge these critical gaps, technology firms have increasingly recruited from outside the EU. This has led to the proportion of ICT specialists born outside the European Union rising from 9.2 percent in 2021 to 11.9 percent in 2024.
Gender imbalance continues to limit the overall potential of the EU’s digital workforce. Eurofound reports that female professionals accounted for less than one in five ICT specialists across the 27 EU member states in 2024, holding a 19 percent share. Furthermore, gender pay disparities in the broader ICT sector stood at nearly 20 percent in 2022, above the economy-wide average of 13 percent. Researchers from Eurofound noted that the underrepresentation of women results in European industries operating with less than three quarters of their potential digital talent pool, thereby limiting diversity in technological development.
Core Software Consulting Growth Highlights Persistent Challenges in Skill Shortages
The report emphasizes that although ICT roles generally offer higher-than-average pay, advanced skills training, and strong job quality, these factors alone cannot resolve the ongoing labor shortage. As the EU is projected to fall short of the 2030 ICT workforce target by 5 million workers, experts stress that bridging this gap will necessitate coordinated policy actions. These should focus on expanding domestic educational capacities and facilitating intra-EU labor mobility. Data for the study incorporated quantitative analyses, along with insights from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and LinkedIn Economic Graph’s professional analytics.
European policymakers and industry leaders are under increasing pressure to align national vocational frameworks with the future needs of the digital economy. Eurofound concluded that failure to address domestic training deficits will heighten reliance on international talent markets and threaten broader European digital transformation goals. Regulatory authorities continue to review workforce strategies, with efforts underway to expand training pipelines, boost female participation in technical fields, and maintain economic competitiveness on the global tech stage.