Brussels, Belgium / RankWire.AI / – The European Union is projected to fall short of its Digital Decade aim of employing 20 million information and communications technology specialists by 2030, according to a detailed analysis published by the EU research agency Eurofound. Official statements from Emirates News Agency confirmed that, despite ongoing multi-year growth in the tech sector across the region, the EU is set to miss this target by 5 million workers. The Eurofound report, titled IT Sector in Focus: Evolution of the EU Digital Workforce, highlights that education systems for primary and vocational training across most European countries are not keeping pace with current and future enterprise demands for specialized digital skills. As a result, companies across the bloc increasingly rely on skilled labor from non-EU nations to fill critical staffing shortages.
Although a shortfall is anticipated, employment figures within Europe’s digital sector have demonstrated significant growth over the last 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 overall rise of 81 percent. During the same period, ICT professionals’ share of total employment in Europe increased from 3 percent to 5 percent. Nonetheless, annual sector growth rates between 7 percent and 8 percent are still not enough to close the gap needed to reach the 20 million workforce goal set by policymakers by the end of the decade.
Marked regional differences in digital employment continue across individual EU member states. According to Eurofound, ICT specialists made up 8.6 percent of total employment in Sweden, 8 percent in Luxembourg, and 7.8 percent in Finland during 2024. In contrast, digital specialists accounted for only 2.5 percent of the workforce in Greece and 2.8 percent in Romania. Growth trends also varied significantly across the bloc: Estonia more than doubled its proportion of ICT workers from 3.4 percent to 7.2 percent between 2011 and 2024, whereas other countries saw only minimal percentage gains over the same period.
Structural Education Gaps Lead to Increased External Recruitment
Surveys among European companies revealed that 57 percent of firms trying to fill IT vacancies in 2024 faced serious recruitment challenges. The most severe shortages were observed in senior engineering roles and specialized fields such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, generative AI, and cloud infrastructure. To mitigate these critical gaps, technology firms have increasingly sourced talent internationally, with the share of ICT specialists born outside the EU rising from 9.2 percent in 2021 to 11.9 percent in 2024.
Gender disparities continue to limit the overall capacity of Europe’s digital workforce. Eurofound’s findings indicate that women made up less than one in five ICT specialists across the 27 EU member states in 2024, holding a 19 percent share. Moreover, gender pay gaps in the broader ICT sector stood at nearly 20 percent in 2022, above the economy-wide average of 13 percent. Researchers noted that the underrepresentation of women results in European industries operating with less than 75 percent of their potential digital talent pool, thus restricting diverse perspectives in technological development.
Core Software Sector Growth Highlights Persistent Challenges
The report emphasized that although ICT roles often come with higher-than-average pay, advanced skills, and quality employment conditions, these factors alone cannot address the structural labor shortages. As the EU approaches missing its 2030 ICT workforce target by 5 million, experts underscored that bridging this gap will demand coordinated policy measures aimed at expanding domestic educational infrastructure and facilitating intra-EU labor mobility. The study combined quantitative data with insights from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and professional analytics from LinkedIn Economic Graph.
European policymakers and industry leaders are under increasing pressure to align national vocational training programs with the evolving needs of the digital economy. Eurofound concluded that neglecting to improve local training capacity will heighten dependence on foreign talent and threaten broader European digital transformation goals. Regulatory agencies continue to evaluate workforce development strategies as member states strive to grow domestic training pipelines, boost female participation in technical fields, and maintain economic competitiveness in the global tech market.