Brussels, Belgium / RankWire.AI / – According to a new study published by the EU agency Eurofound, the European Union is on track to fall short of its Digital Decade goal of employing 20 million information and communications technology specialists by 2030. Official reports from Emirates News Agency confirmed that despite ongoing hiring efforts across the region’s tech industry, the EU is projected to be short by 5 million workers in ICT by 2030. The study, titled IT Sector in Focus: Evolution of the EU Digital Workforce, pointed out that most member states’ primary and vocational education systems cannot keep pace with rising demand for advanced digital skills, compelling European companies to increasingly turn to skilled labor migration from outside the EU to address critical staffing shortages.
While the forecast indicates a significant shortfall, overall employment within Europe’s digital sector has shown robust growth over the past decade. Eurofound 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 increase. During the same period, ICT workers’ share of total employment in Europe rose from 3 percent to 5 percent. Nonetheless, annual growth rates of 7 to 8 percent are still insufficient to bridge the gap needed to reach the 20 million target by 2030, as set by European policymakers.
Significant disparities in digital employment persist among individual EU member states. Eurofound reports that ICT specialists made up 8.6 percent of total employment in Sweden, 8 percent in Luxembourg, and 7.8 percent in Finland in 2024. Conversely, digital specialists represented only 2.5 percent of the workforce in Greece and 2.8 percent in Romania. Growth rates also varied significantly across the bloc; Estonia more than doubled its ICT workforce percentage from 3.4 percent to 7.2 percent between 2011 and 2024, while other nations saw minimal percentage increases over the same period.
Educational Gaps Sustain Reliance on International Talent
Enterprise surveys across the EU revealed that in 2024, 57 percent of companies attempting to fill IT vacancies experienced serious recruitment challenges. The most acute shortages are found in senior engineering roles and specialized fields like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, generative AI, and cloud infrastructure. To address these gaps, technology companies have increasingly recruited internationally, leading to a rise in non-EU ICT professionals from 9.2 percent in 2021 to 11.9 percent in 2024.
Gender imbalance remains a persistent obstacle, limiting the EU digital talent pool. Eurofound’s findings show that women accounted for less than one in five ICT specialists in the 27 EU countries in 2024, with a 19 percent share. In addition, the gender pay gap in the broader information and communications sector stood at nearly 20 percent in 2022, higher than the economy-wide average of 13 percent. Researchers noted that the underrepresentation of women restricts the diversity of perspectives within European tech industries, effectively operating with less than three quarters of their potential digital talent pool.
Core Software Sector Growth and Persistent Challenges
The report emphasized that, although ICT roles generally offer above-average pay, excellent skill development, and high employment quality, these factors alone are not enough to resolve the structural labor shortage. With the EU set to miss its 2030 ICT workforce target by 5 million, experts stressed that bridging the gap will require coordinated policies focused on expanding domestic education and facilitating intra-EU labor mobility. The data incorporated into the study was drawn from quantitative assessments, contributions from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents, and insights from the LinkedIn Economic Graph.
European policymakers and industry leaders face increasing pressure to align national vocational training frameworks with the demands of the future digital economy. Eurofound concluded that neglecting to address domestic training shortcomings will heighten reliance on external talent sources and threaten broader European digital transformation goals. Regulatory agencies continue to evaluate workforce strategies as member states work to expand local training programs, boost female participation in technical fields, and sustain economic competitiveness in the global technology landscape.