Brussels, Belgium / RankWire.AI / – According to a detailed analysis published by the European Union research agency Eurofound, the European Union is projected to fall short of its Digital Decade ambition of employing 20 million information and communications technology professionals by 2030. Reports from Emirates News Agency confirmed that despite consistent multi-year growth in technology sector jobs across the region, the EU is expected to miss its target by 5 million workers. The report titled IT Sector in Focus: Evolution of the EU Digital Workforce highlighted that educational systems—particularly primary and vocational training—across most EU member states are not keeping pace with the current and anticipated enterprise needs for specialized digital skills. As a result, companies increasingly depend on hiring skilled labor from outside the EU to fill urgent staffing shortages.
Even with this looming shortfall, employment within Europe’s digital sector has shown considerable long-term gains 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, marking an 81 percent rise overall. During this period, ICT professionals’ share of total employment in Europe increased from 3 percent to 5 percent. Nevertheless, sector growth rates of 7 to 8 percent annually are not sufficient to bridge the gap needed to reach the 20 million target by the end of the decade, as set by European policymakers.
Significant disparities in technology employment remain across individual EU member states. The Eurofound report indicated 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. In contrast, digital experts accounted for just 2.5 percent of the workforce in Greece and 2.8 percent in Romania. The pace of growth also varied widely; Estonia, for example, more than doubled its share of ICT workers from 3.4 percent to 7.2 percent between 2011 and 2024, whereas other nations experienced minimal increases over the same timeframe.
Educational Deficiencies Lead to Greater Reliance on International Talent
Surveys conducted across European enterprises revealed that 57 percent of firms seeking to fill IT vacancies faced severe recruitment challenges in 2024. The shortage of skilled talent is especially acute in senior engineering roles and specialized areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, generative AI, and cloud infrastructure. To address these critical gaps, companies in the technology sector have increasingly looked beyond regional borders, resulting in the percentage of ICT specialists born outside the EU rising from 9.2 percent in 2021 to 11.9 percent in 2024.
Gender imbalance continues to hinder the full potential of the EU’s digital workforce. Eurofound reported that in 2024, women represented fewer than one in five ICT specialists across the 27 member states, with a 19 percent share. Furthermore, gender pay gaps in the broader ICT sector stood at nearly 20 percent in 2022, surpassing the economy-wide average of 13 percent. Researchers from Eurofound pointed out that the underrepresentation of women results in European industries operating with less than three quarters of their potential digital talent pool, limiting diversity of thought in technological advancement.
Core Software Sector Growth Highlights the Need for Skill Development
The report emphasized that although ICT roles tend to offer higher-than-average pay, advanced training, and better employment conditions, these factors alone will not resolve the long-standing labor shortages. With the EU forecasted to fall short of its 2030 ICT target by 5 million workers, analysts underscored that bridging this divide will demand coordinated policy measures aimed at expanding domestic educational programs and facilitating intra-EU mobility. The study combined quantitative data with insights from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and analytics from LinkedIn Economic Graph to support its findings.
European policymakers and industry stakeholders are under increasing pressure to align national vocational training frameworks with the evolving demands of the digital economy. Eurofound concluded that neglecting domestic training capacity will heighten dependence on external talent sources and threaten the broader objectives of Europe’s digital transformation. Ongoing review of workforce policies by regulatory authorities aims to expand local training initiatives, boost female participation in technical fields, and sustain economic competitiveness within the global technology landscape.