Economy 24 July 2023, 6:00am

Not enough ICT specialists in the EU - Situation much better in Hungary than in several countries

Portfolio

Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Germany have the highest shortages of information and communication technology (ICT) specialists, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In Hungary, six out of ten firms have problems recruiting ICT specialists in 2021, just below the EU average.

Havi 250 ezertől az 1,8 millióig: mitől függ egy informatikus fizetése?

Last year, almost 1 in 10 (9.5 %) enterprises in the EU reported that in 2021 they recruited or were trying to recruit ICT specialists and 62.8 % of those enterprises had difficulties in filling those vacancies, Eurostat reported

Denmark had the highest proportion of companies hiring or trying to hire ICT specialists in 2021 (19.1%), while Romania and Italy were at the other end of the ranking (both 4.9%). Hungary's rate of 8.3% was below the EU average (9.5%).

Among EU members, in Slovenia (78.0%), Czechia (77.0%) and Germany (76.6%), over three-quarters of the enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists had difficulties in filling ICT vacancies.

Luxembourg (70.9%) and the Netherlands (70.4%) followed closely, with a significant proportion of businesses facing the same difficulties.

The lowest shares were registered in Spain (32.8%), Bulgaria (46.0%), Poland (46.5%), Slovakia (51.4%), and Cyprus (54.5%). Difficulties encountered by enterprises when trying to recruit ICT specialists were lack of applications, lack of relevant qualifications and experience and high salary expectations.

Hungary's share was 61.1%, just below the 62.8% EU average.

Mostly large enterprises recruit ICT specialists

The share of firms hiring or trying to hire ICT specialists in 2022 was significantly higher among large firms with 250 or more employees (48.8%) than among medium-sized firms with 50-249 employees (19.4%) and small firms with 10-49 employees (6.4%).

When considering the size of the enterprise, the proportion of enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit but faced difficulties was substantially higher among large enterprises (72.2 %). Still, the shares were also high among medium-sized enterprises (63.7 %) and small enterprises (59.9 %).

More than one third of firms in Denmark employ ICT specialists

A more extensive Eurostat analysis, published in parallel with the report, also looked at the proportion of firms in each Member State with 10 or more employees that employ ICT specialists.

In 2022, 21.0 % of EU enterprises employed ICT specialists. Among the EU Member States, Denmark (34.2%), Malta (33.5 ) and Belgium (32.7%) presented the highest proportion of enterprises employing ICT specialists. Romania, with 11.5%, presented the lowest ratio of enterprises employing ICT specialists in 2022.

Hungary is close to the top of the ranking with a 30.6% share, the sixth highest in the bloc.

The percentage of large enterprises employing ICT specialists (77.6%) was in 2022 more than five times higher than the ratio of small sized enterprises employing ICT specialists (15.1%).

Low share of women in Hungarian ICT sector
Hungary has one of the lowest shares of women working as ICT specialists in the entire EU, a May report by Eurostat revealed. Hungary's 13.6% share beats only Czechia's 10.9%, which compare with the 18.9% EU average. As regards the share of ICT specialists (men and women) on the labour market, Hungary's 4.1% share is below the EU average of 4.6%. Among the EU countries, the share of ICT specialists was highest in Sweden (8.6%), followed by Luxembourg (7.7%) and Finland (7.6%). The lowest shares were observed in Greece (2.5%), Romania (2.8%) and Poland (3.6%).

Not enough applicants for ICT jobs

Difficulties encountered by enterprises when trying to recruit ICT specialists were

lack of applications,
lack of relevant qualifications
lack of relevant work experience and
high salary expectations.

With 51.3% the lack of applications was the difficulty for filling ICT specialists’ positions most often reported by enterprises in 2021. Lack of relevant qualifications, high salary expectations and lack of experience were almost equally significant barriers (42-43%) faced by enterprises when filling ICT specialists vacancies and reported by only a slightly lower share of enterprises. In 2021, enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists, faced the same difficulties regardless of their enterprise size