ICT professionals: skills opportunities and challenges (2023 update)

Summary

The Information and communication (ICT) sector is one of the most rapidly evolving sectors in the EU. ICT professionals, who mainly work in the ICT sector, accounted for around 2 per cent of all employment in the EU in 2022. These workers are important for the digital transformation that is currently taking place across several European economic sectors. 

ICT professionals develop and improve information technology systems, hardware, software, and digital databases, provide advice to other professionals about the type of ICT applications most fit for their purposes, and support enterprises to ensure data integrity and security. Jobs within this group include systems analysts, software, web, and multimedia developers, applications programmers, database administrators, and computer network specialists. 
It is important to mention that some important high skilled ICT occupations are not covered by this data insight, because they belong to different occupations at ISCO 2-digit level: notably ICT managers (see Technical managers data insight), Graphic and multimedia designers (see Researchers & engineers data insight) or ICT sales professionals (see Office professionals data insight).

Key facts

• Around 4.6 million people were employed as ICT professionals in 2022. 
• Between 2012 and 2022 employment for ICT professionals increased by 90 per cent. 
• Between 2019 and 2020 and despite the economic lockdowns experienced across the EU, almost 300 thousand new ICT professional jobs were created. Employment increased further in the following year, and by the end of 2022 it was 1 million workers above its 2019 level.
• Most ICT professionals – 54 per cent in 2021 - are employed in the ICT sector. 
• Most ICT professionals (80 per cent) have attained a qualification level of ISCED 5 or above in 2021, equivalent to the first stage of tertiary education. The qualification level of the occupation is not expected to change over the period to 2035.
• ICT professionals are mainly men (82 per cent in 2021). 
• The employment of ICT professionals is projected to increase by 30 per cent between 2022 and 2035. 
• Advancements in digital technologies, their diffusion across many and diverse economic sectors, and the interplay between the digital and the green transition will drive changes in the skills required of ICT professionals in the future. Most of the future ICT professionals will require multi-disciplinary ‘T-shaped’ skillsets.
   

Employment and job demand

Employment trends for ICT professionals were higher than all professional jobs in the past decade. The Covid-19 pandemic did not bring employment drops, on the contrary, combined with technology development through all sectors, ICT professionals grew rapidly year by year. 

Figure 1: Year-to-year employment change for ICT professionals (2013-2022)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Employed persons by detailed occupation (ISCO-08 two-digit level) [LFSA_EGAI2D__custom_7778289]. Own calculations.

Most ICT professionals (77 per cent) are engaged as software and applications developers and analysts. The rest of the ICT professionals are engaged as database and network professionals. 

Over time, the share of employment accounted for by these two occupations has remained more or less stable. 

Figure 2: Employment in ICT professionals’ jobs (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

The majority of OJAs for ICT professionals are for software and applications developers and analysts. There is also a notable shift in the growing importance of ICT professionals against lower-skilled ICT roles, such as ICT technicians. For example, in the OJAs, ICT professional roles now represent over 80 per cent of ICT job openings. The demand for the ICT roles is also shifting. Two of the most interesting job areas of ICT profiles seem to be process improvements and business ICT solutions. Within these, Cedefop’s digital skills policy brief lists occupations like product owners, data scientists or DevOps experts as amongst those with the highest number of job ads.

For more details on skills demand and job openings for this occupation,  please access the Cedefop’s Skills OVATE tool.

Figure 3a: Online job advertisements for ICT professionals (2022, in %)

Source: Skills in Online Job Advertisements indicator based on Cedefop’s Skills OVATE. Own calculations. Note: Online job advertisements are by definition not equivalent to job vacancies. See Beręsewicz (2021) or Napierala et al. (2022).

The above-mentioned breakdown of ICT occupations, based on the ISCO-08 classification, is, however, not picturing well the dynamically changing landscape of digital jobs. Cedefop's approach in analysing the demand for ICT jobs in OJAs also uses the modern classification developed by the European Committee of Standardization (CEN), which allows for capturing a much wider variety of different ICT profiles.

Using this approach, Cedefop estimates that the two most important categories of ICT jobs are in the area of Development (such as software developers, digital media specialists or TES specialists) and Support (for example account managers, digital consultants or cyber security specialists). These two job areas represent roughly one-half of all ICT jobs OJAs tracked by Cedefop. The third most important job area is Design (such as business analysts or data specialists), followed by Process improvement (mainly product owners and DevOps experts) and Technical (mostly project managers). 

Figure 3b: Online job advertisements for ICT job areas (2022, in %)

Source: Skills in Online Job Advertisements indicator based on Cedefop’s Skills OVATE. Own calculations. Note: Online job advertisements are by definition not equivalent to job vacancies. See Beręsewicz (2021) or Napierala et al. (2022).

The ICT sector employs the majority of ICT professionals (54 per cent in 2021). The manufacturing sector is the only other sector with a significant number of ICT professionals, accounting for 10 per cent of their employment.

  Figure 4: The top sectors employing ICT professionals (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

In OJAs across all sectors, software developers and analysts are the most demanded ICT occupation, even outside the core ICT sector. This is because the development and customization of many applications takes place in companies that use them. Profiles of such ICT professionals have usually strong sector skill focus, to fit the developed software of apps to the context of a specific use case the best.

The share of employment of ICT professionals is higher in northern and western European countries. The southern European countries have the lowest employment shares of ICT professionals.

Figure 5: ICT professionals as a share of country employment (2021, in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations. 
Note: Data for CY, EE, IS, LV and LU have lower reliability because of the small sample size.
LFS data for MT are not available. 

The workforce is composed mainly of men (81 per cent in 2021). Many fewer ICT professionals appear to be over 50 years old compared to the average across all occupations. 

Figure 6: ICT professionals by age (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

The ICT professionals have mostly full-time contracts without fixed tenure. The offered contracts are on average very good, also because only a small part of those reporting temporary or part time contracts say they have them involuntarily.

Figure 7: Contract and hiring trends work for ICT professionals (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

Skill needs and future trends

ICT professionals’ skill needs focus on innovation, literacy, and mathematical tasks. It is no surprise that digital skills – both office tools and specialised software and databases – are in the highest demand compared to all occupations average. Cedefop’s OJAs analysis shows SQL, Javascript, PHP and Python being the most demanded programming languages, and it also argues that among professional jobs, 15 per cent of OJAs mention at least one AI skill. 

Changing skill needs also indicate higher need for further training – both overall and digital upskilling needs are higher than what is all occupations average.

Figure 8: Skills, training needs and job perception of ICT professionals (in %)

Source: European Skills and Jobs Survey. Microdata. Own calculations. 
Unless stated otherwise, it is a share of people reporting that a task/skill is part of their job.
*Always or often
** Share of workers reporting these needs to a great or moderate extent.

Overall, employment for ICT professionals is expected to increase markedly (by about 30 per cent) over the period 2022 to 2035. Future employment will be similar across most of the countries. Employment in most of the countries (20) grew at very high rates - more than 30 per cent - in the past decade and it is forecast to do so in the next decade as well, while the rest are either stable or represent the opposite trend.

Figure 9: Past and expected future employment trends of ICT professionals

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Cedefop Skills Forecast.
Note: Data for CY, EE, IS, LV and LU have lower reliability because of small sample size.
LFS data for MT are not available. 

Most job openings are a result of people leaving them for other opportunities, or those leaving the labour market completely (retirements; parent leave and such). In the case of the ICT professionals, this replacement demand exceeds the new job creation, as it is estimated at 1.7 million. Like in the case of office professionals, the share of new jobs to replacements is much higher than what is usual across all occupations, as ICT roles employ on average younger people and new jobs are created at a much higher rate. Meeting this future requirement may be challenging given the level of labour shortages currently reported for ICT professionals. Cedefop analysis, based on the OJA data, confirms that the job market for ICT roles continues to be very tight, meaning that compared to the number of available job posts, there are very few job candidates available. Countries experiencing the highest levels of job market tightness for ICT professionals include Germany, France, Czechia, Poland, and Sweden.

Figure 10: Future job openings for ICT professionals (000s)

Source: Future job openings indicator based on the Cedefop Skills Forecast. Own calculations.

Looking forward

ICT professionals work in one of the fastest transforming fields. Much of that transformation owes to technological change and developments in the ICT sector, in which more than 54% of these workers are occupied (see previous sections). A recent Needs Analysis Report, conducted by the European Software Skills Alliance (ESSA), on the demand for software skills indicates that developers are likely to remain the most in-demand software skills jobs, while multi-disciplinary ‘T-shaped’ and even ‘π-shaped’ skillsets are becoming more important. This means that individuals in the ICT sector will need to have a broad range of skills complemented by one or two specialisations where they develop expert knowledge. These could include data analysis, cybersecurity, sustainability, and business relations. A similar result emerged form a recent Cedefop (2024, upcoming) report that examined the evolving skill requirements for the ICT sector. The report identifies several key factors that are likely to shape future employment demand in the ICT sector, and, to a large extent, for ICT professionals.

• Digitalisation has a twofold impact on the future of ICT professionals as they are both affected by and actively contribute to the development of digital technologies. As the change makers in the development and implementation of ICT tools, they are those digitalising the sectors they are employed in. Demand for ICT professionals is foreseen to increase due to several technological developments (Ellerbeck, 2022).  Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) use is becoming increasingly popular across different industries. Generative AI (that creates content from training data, e.g. ChatGPT) will boost the productivity of AI professionals, as well as create a need for professionals with the right skills to design, build and maintain such systems. ICT professionals will also need to continue to oversee the working processes within machine learning (McKendrick, 2023). Cloud computing also impacts the way organisations store, manage, and process data and, hence, changes the job roles of IT professionals. Jobs for cloud-related engineers and developers are foreseen to increase in various organisations (Carson et al, 2022). Likewise, Internet of Things (IoT) requires the expertise of professionals, who can apply adequate and safe approaches to developing networks connecting a multitude of devices (Giezeman, 2021). 
• The changing nature of demand for ICT services and the changes in relevant regulations also shape the future skills required of ICT professionals (Cedefop, 2023). Scale and nature of ICT services demand changes as businesses of more and different sectors adapt to the need to become more digital. Demand for services such as cloud computing, web sales, hosting, e-mailing, and e-accounting services are on the rise and expected to grow more in the future. ICT professionals need to design and supervise the implementation of tailored solutions for businesses across the sectoral spectrum, from agricultural farms using precision agriculture and censoring, to manufacturing firms managing their energy use, to small retailers opting for their personal app. 
• A share of the future demand for ICT services will relate to processes and solutions for increasing sustainability and monitoring circularity. Digitalisation plays a key role in the transition towards a more sustainable economic model for the European Union, as advocated by the Commission’s European Green Deal. At the same time, digital technologies account for 8-10% of EU’s energy consumption and about 2-4% of its greenhouse gas emissions, which indicates a need for sustainable strategies within the ICT sector. ICT professionals will need to be knowledgeable of sustainability principles to contribute to globally reducing the digital carbon footprint (Climate Impact Partners, 2021). The ICT sector will be key in the development and deployment of greener digital technologies, of methods and tools to measure the impact of green technologies on the environment and in the co-creation of guidelines for green transformation with sectoral experts (European Green Digital Coalition, 2021). For example, the energy sector is increasingly using digital technologies, such as AI, Big Data, Internet of Things and cloud computing to foster sustainability transition towards clean energy (Lyu & Liu, 2021).
• A lot of the development of digital technologies entails the collection, storage, and management of big data. This implies that ICT professionals will need to update their knowledge and understanding of adjacent regulatory frameworks – such as the general data protection regulation. As digitalisation impacts all parts of society and has great potential of changing many parts of it, the ICT professionals responsible for these processes will need to comply with privacy guidelines when handling data. This implies that their future skills development goes beyond technical knowhow related to programming, coding or software development. In addition to data protection, cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important in the light of emerging online and cyberthreats. As technological developments are only picking up speed, and are exponentially increasing  the complexity of their use of data, sectors across the European economies will continue to require these specialists (ENISA, 2021).
• A shortage of ICT professionals potentially threatens the number of projected job openings to 2035 being filled. A recent report by the European Labour Authority found shortages across all detailed ICT professional job profiles, namely systems analysts, software developers, applications programmers, and web and multimedia developers. Software developers, systems analysts, and applications programmers were cited as being in severe shortage. Cedefop analysis, using the OJA data, confirms job market tightness (measured as a comparison of the number of job postings and number of available applicants) for ICT roles in many EU countries (see above).

Addressing the currently noted skill shortages for ICT professionals will require significant training and skills development throughout the career path of ICT professionals, incorporating the development of regulatory frameworks, as well as principles of green growth. The European Commission has brought together various strategies to promote the development of ICT skills and training future ICT-related workers. The 2030 digital compass strategy sets out the ambition to reach 20 million ICT specialists in Europe by 2030, and mediate existing gender imbalances. Also, the strategy seeks to increase the level of basic digital skills amongst the general population and enhance specialised digital skills amongst ICT professionals. In addition, the European AI Strategy aims to address the ICT skills gap related to artificial intelligence as a key challenge for the EU’s digital agenda. To remain globally competitive, the EU needs professionals from diverse backgrounds with specialised AI skills, such as data modelling, semantics, and architecture to ensure that the development of these technologies is rolled out with the imperative of human-in-control principle.

ICT professionals typically begin their skills development in higher education, where they spend three to six years. Erasmus Mundus joint masters programmes present excellent examples of transnational cooperation in innovative education for ICT professionals. For example, the CYBERUS master in cybersecurity is a two-year programme encompassing studies in France, Estonia, Belgium and Luxembourg, and offering two parallel study tracks – IoT Cybersecurity and Software Cybersecurity. Some of the modules covered in this programme include Secure Advanced Programming, Cryptology, Network and Operating Systems Security, and Risk Analysis. Another example is the EDISS joint master in engineering of data-intensive intelligent software systems with study options in Finland, Spain, Italy and Sweden. This interdisciplinary programme bridges the knowledges and skills development in data science and software engineering to prepare graduates with expertise in data-intensive intelligent software systems.

Continuous education is also important for addressing future skills needs of ICT professionals. Its importance is more pronounced in rapidly changing fields such that of ICT. Professionals currently in the field will need to re-train to adapt to new technological tools such as cloud computing and AI, but also to gain tailored knowledge about other fields they might be called to apply their digital expertise in the future, such as sustainability or cybersecurity. All stakeholders in this pursuit can meet on the Digital Skills & Jobs Platform, which provides up-to-date information, resources and opportunities in the field of the development of digital competences.

To further foster the rollout of specialised AI skills amongst ICT professionals, the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 foresees several actions that will shape the AI-related skillset of these workers. Amongst other objectives, the action plan supports: increasing the participation of VET students and teaching staff in traineeships related to digital areas alongside university students; increasing female participation in AI-related training activities; and promoting the application of AI in compulsory education. While women’s share in overall employment in the EU stands at 46%, it remains only 18% in the ICT sector (see previous sections). Therefore, multiple measures can be taken to increase women’s share in ICT. For instance, the Women4IT project (see box below) run by the European Centre for Women and Technology and DIGITALEUROPE seeks to raise awareness of and develop the digital competence of young women at risk of labour market exclusion.

DIGITALEUROPE is another platform that centralises skills alliances related to the digital transformation and the ICT sector. For instance, the CHAISE (Blockchain Skills for Europe) project addresses skills mismatches in blockchain technologies through proof training solutions, mobility schemes and qualifications, and improvement in the attractiveness of the sector. At the same time, the ARISA project (Artificial Intelligence Skills Alliance) seeks to accelerate the up- and reskilling of workers in AI-related professions and is currently in the process of developing AI skills curricula and learning programmes, certification methods and framework. The Digital Skillup provides also a catalogue of online courses which allow for upskilling in digital competences from beginner to advanced levels.

At the same time, ICT professionals can benefit from a rapidly increasing number of micro-credentials. Micro-credentials are short term certified learning experiences, which due to their flexible nature are well-designed to combine working life and professional training. They usually focus on a rather narrow topic or skillset, so that professionals would be able to develop their knowledge, skills and competences within that theme.

For example, the UNA Europa consortium consists of 11 universities that have put forward future-looking degree programmes and micro-credentials. One of such courses is the Lifelong Learning Certificate in Data Science, which aims to train ICT professionals in working with large datasets, keeping pace with current trends, and developing related business strategies. The same consortium also offers a massive open online course (MOOC) in AI in Society, which gives an insight into the ethical and social aspects of AI, a conceptual framework to position AI in the social context, and awareness and ability to prevent potentially unwanted consequences of developing AI applications.

How to cite this publication:

Cedefop (2023). ICT professionals: skills opportunities and challenges. Skills intelligence data insight.

Further reading

Beręsewicz, M. and Pater, R. (2021). Inferring job vacancies from online job advertisements, Luxembourg: Publications Office, 2021. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2785/96387 

Carson, B., Gartner, D., Iyengar, K., Swminathan, A. (2022). ‘Six practical actions for building the cloud talent you need’. McKinsey Digital, article, published 19 January 2022

Cedefop (2023a). Going digital means skilling for digital: using big data to track emerging digital skill needs. Luxembourg: Publications Office. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/772175

Cedefop (2023b). Skills in transition: the way to 2035. Luxembourg: Publications Office. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/438491 

CHAISE (2023). Blockchain skills for Europe: Objectives.

Climate Impact Partners (2021). The Carbon Footprint of the Internet. Article, published 22 April 2021

Digital Skills & Jobs Platform (2023). About: Digital Skills and Jobs Platform

ENISA (2021). ‘Addressing Skills Shortage and Gap Through Higher Education’, report, published 24 November 2021

European Commission (2020a). Shaping Europe’s digital future. COM (2020) 67 final

European Commission (2020b). Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027: Resetting education and training for the digital age. COM(2020) 624 final

European Commission (2021a). 2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade. COM(2021) 118 final

European Commission (2021b). Fostering a European approach to Artificial Intelligence. COM(2021) 205 final

European Green Digital Coalition (2021). Declaration ‘In support of the Green and Digital Transformation of the EU’. Digital Day 2021. Porto

European Labour Authority (2021). Report on labour shortages and surpluses.

Giezeman, W. (2021). ‘Laying the foundation to accelerate the enterprise IoT journey’, McKinsey & Company: Technology, Media and Telecommunications, interview, 16 November 2021

He, R, Luo, L., Shamsuddin, A, & Tang, Q. (2022). Corporate carbon accounting: a literature review of carbon accounting research from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement. Accounting and Finance, 62, 261-298. https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12789.

Higgins, M. (2021). ‘The Future of Accounting: How Will Digital Transformation Impact Accountants?’. Forbes, published 19 May 2021

Lyu, W., Liu, J. (2021). ‘Artificial Intelligence and emerging digital technologies in the energy sector’. In Applied Energy, Vol. 303(1)

McKendrik, J. (2023). ‘Generative AI is changing your technology career path. What to know’. ZDNet.com, article, published 17 April 2023

McKinsey (2022). ‘Europe’s fintech opportunity’. McKinsey & Company, report, published 26 October 2022

Napierala, J.; Kvetan, V. and Branka, J. (2022). Assessing the representativeness of online job advertisements. Luxembourg: Publications Office. Cedefop working paper, No 17. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/807500

PWC (2023). Challenges: Sustainability: Sustainable Finance.

Regulation (EU) 2016/679. General Data Protection Regulation. Official Journal of the EU L119

Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of 18 June 2020 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment, Official Journal of the EU, published 22 June 2020

Sampson, S.E. (2021). ‘A Strategic Framework for Task Automation in Professional Services'. In Journal of Service Research, Vol. 24(1), pp. 122-140