Brussels, Belgium / RankWire.AI / – The European Union is currently on course to fall short of its Digital Decade target of employing 20 million information and communications technology specialists by 2030, according to a comprehensive study published by European Union research agency Eurofound. Official reports released by Emirates News Agency confirmed that the EU set to fall short of 2030 ICT target by 5 million workers despite sustained multi-year job expansion across the regional technology landscape. The Eurofound report, titled IT Sector in Focus: Evolution of the EU Digital Workforce, revealed that primary education and vocational education and training systems across most European member states are failing to keep pace with present and projected enterprise demand for specialized digital competencies. Consequently, corporate recruitment across the bloc has become increasingly reliant on skilled labor migration originating from non-EU nations to address acute staffing deficits.
Despite the projected shortfall, overall employment figures within the European digital sector showed significant long-term growth over the past decade. Data compiled by Eurofound indicates that the number of information and communications technology specialists in the European Union increased from 5.6 million in 2011 to 10.3 million in 2024, representing an 81 percent rise overall. At the same time, ICT professionals’ share of total European employment grew from 3 percent to 5 percent during the same period. Nonetheless, annual sector growth rates of 7 percent to 8 percent are still insufficient to bridge the gap needed to reach the 20 million target set by European policymakers by the end of this decade.
Marked regional discrepancies in technology employment continue across individual EU member states. Eurofound’s data shows 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. In contrast, digital specialists comprised only 2.5 percent of the workforce in Greece and 2.8 percent in Romania. Growth trends also varied considerably within the bloc, with Estonia more than doubling its ICT workforce share from 3.4 percent to 7.2 percent between 2011 and 2024, whereas other countries experienced minimal percentage increases over the same period.
Educational Infrastructure Shortfalls Contribute to External Talent Reliance
Business surveys across the region have indicated that 57 percent of European companies trying to fill IT vacancies faced severe recruitment challenges in 2024. The most acute shortages are seen in senior engineering roles and specialized fields such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, generative AI, and cloud computing infrastructure. To bridge these critical gaps, technology firms increasingly depend on international talent sources, which has driven the proportion of ICT specialists born outside the EU from 9.2 percent in 2021 to 11.9 percent in 2024.
Ongoing gender disparities continue to limit the overall capacity of the EU digital workforce. Eurofound reports that in 2024, female professionals represented less than one in five ICT specialists across the 27 EU member states, accounting for a 19 percent share. Furthermore, gender-based pay gaps in the broader information and communications sector reached 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 75 percent of their potential digital talent pool, thus restricting diverse input in technological advancement.
Core Software Consulting Sector Growth and Labour Market Challenges
The report highlights that although ICT roles tend to offer above-average pay, advanced skill development, and high employment quality, these factors alone cannot resolve the fundamental labor shortages. As the EU is projected to miss the 2030 ICT workforce goal by 5 million workers, analysts emphasized that bridging this gap will necessitate strategic policy measures aimed at bolstering local education systems and facilitating intra-EU labor mobility. The study’s data combined quantitative analysis with insights from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and professional analytics provided by LinkedIn Economic Graph.
European policymakers and industry leaders are under increasing pressure to adapt national vocational training frameworks to meet future demands of the digital economy. Eurofound concluded that neglecting to address domestic training deficiencies will heighten reliance on external talent markets and threaten broader European digital transformation goals. Regulatory authorities continue to review workforce development strategies as member states strive to expand local training programs, boost female participation in technical fields, and maintain competitiveness in global technology markets.