Brussels, Belgium / RankWire.AI / – According to a comprehensive analysis published by the European Union research agency 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 from Emirates News Agency confirmed that the EU is projected to miss its 2030 ICT target by 5 million workers despite ongoing multi-year job growth across the regional tech sector. The Eurofound report, titled IT Sector in Focus: Evolution of the EU Digital Workforce, highlights that educational systems—both primary and vocational—across most European nations are not keeping up with current and forecasted enterprise demand for specialized digital skills. As a result, companies within the bloc increasingly depend on recruiting skilled labor from non-EU countries to fill critical staffing shortages.
Although a shortfall is expected, employment figures within Europe’s digital sector have shown significant long-term growth over the past decade. Eurofound’s data shows 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 the same period, ICT professionals’ share of total employment in Europe increased from 3 percent to 5 percent. Nevertheless, with annual growth rates of 7 percent to 8 percent, the sector’s expansion remains insufficient to bridge the gap needed to reach the 20 million threshold set by policymakers by the end of this decade.
Significant disparities in digital employment persist among European Union member states. Eurofound’s report states that in 2024, ICT specialists accounted for 8.6 percent of total employment in Sweden, 8 percent in Luxembourg, and 7.8 percent in Finland. In contrast, digital specialists made up only 2.5 percent of the workforce in Greece and 2.8 percent in Romania. Growth rates across the bloc varied widely, with Estonia more than doubling its ICT employment share from 3.4 percent to 7.2 percent between 2011 and 2024, while other countries showed minimal increases over the same period.
Education Gaps Lead to Increased Dependence on Foreign Talent
Surveys conducted across the region reveal that 57 percent of European firms seeking to fill IT positions faced severe recruitment challenges in 2024. The shortages are especially acute in senior engineering roles and specialized fields such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, generative AI, and cloud infrastructure. To address these critical gaps, tech companies have increasingly recruited from outside the EU, raising the share of ICT specialists born outside the region from 9.2 percent in 2021 to 11.9 percent in 2024.
Gender imbalance continues to restrict the growth of Europe’s digital talent pool. Eurofound reports that women represented fewer than one in five ICT specialists across the 27 EU member states in 2024, with a 19 percent share. Furthermore, gender pay disparities in the broader ICT sector were nearly 20 percent in 2022, higher than the economy-wide average of 13 percent. Researchers emphasized that underrepresentation of women limits the digital workforce to less than three-quarters of its potential, thereby reducing diversity in technological innovation.
Core Software Sector Growth Highlights Persistent Skill Shortages
The Eurofound report underscores that while ICT roles offer above-average pay, advanced skills, and good employment conditions, these factors alone cannot resolve the structural labor shortages. As the EU approaches a shortfall of 5 million workers by 2030, experts stress that closing this gap necessitates coordinated policy measures to enhance domestic education and facilitate intra-EU mobility. The study combined quantitative data with insights from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and professional analyses from LinkedIn Economic Graph.
European policymakers and industry leaders face increasing pressure to reform national vocational training systems to meet future digital economy demands. Eurofound concluded that neglecting domestic training improvements will heighten reliance on foreign talent and threaten the broader goals of European digital transformation. Regulatory authorities continue to evaluate workforce strategies as member states seek to expand local training programs, boost female participation in technical fields, and maintain economic competitiveness in global tech markets.