Shortage of IT professionals for Irish Businesses continues

More than 51% Irish businesses* have had difficulties filling vacancies for IT specialists. (all figs. collected 2014).

This is higher than the EU average of 40% for businesses* looking for IT staff who have found it hard to recruit qualified staff.

The figures come from a new Eurostat report which looks at the “Information and Communication Technology” (ICT) labour market across the EU.

Finland and Sweden have the highest proportion of IT specialists in their labour force but Ireland ranks quite well, at 9th place in Europe.

The gender balance in the IT sector is striking – Ireland follows the European norm which sees IT being about 80% men. And 35% of Irish IT workers are under 35 (EU is 37.1%).

In Ireland, 88,500 people were employed as IT specialists, representing 4.6% of total employment. Of these 71.4% had a third level education, 5th highest in the EU, and 35% were aged under 35.

Almost 8 million people work as IT specialists in the EU, or 3.7% of total employment in 2014. Of these, 56.5% had a third level education and 37.1% were aged under 35 years.

*businesses with 10 or more employees