During the Corona pandemic, there were signs of a slight improvement in the empty job market for IT specialists in Germany. But now the numbers are getting worse for the second year in a row.
Never before have so many IT specialists been sought in the German economy as this year. According to the digital association Bitkom, the number of job vacancies rose to a new record high of 149,000.
The shortage of IT specialists exists in Germany regardless of the economic situation and is “a systemic problem in the German economy,” said Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst when presenting Bitkom’s annual labor market study. “Too few skilled workers and too much regulation are slowing down digital Germany,” said Wintergerst.
In a survey in which those responsible for 854 companies with three or more employees in Germany were interviewed by telephone, only two percent said that the supply of IT specialists on the labor market was sufficient. A year ago this value was eight percent. At the same time, 70 percent spoke of a shortage of IT specialists.
Study: Improvement is not expected
According to the study, which is representative of the German economy as a whole, the vast majority of companies do not assume that the situation will improve. Only three percent expect the shortage to decrease (2022: 2 percent). A large majority, on the other hand, sees the situation as black: 77 percent fear that even more positions will not be filled (2022: 70 percent).
The problems on the labor market are now clearly noticeable in many companies. Six out of ten companies (60 percent) report that positions for IT specialists in their companies are filled more slowly than other jobs: on average, vacant positions remain unfilled for 7.7 months. A year ago it was 7.1 months.
Qualifications differ significantly
The IT specialists who then end up in the company have very different qualifications. Almost half (44 percent) completed dual training in the company and at the university. 16 percent come from a traditional university course, plus an equal number of skilled workers who have dropped out of their studies (17 percent). The group of career changers is becoming increasingly important. They filled almost every fourth position (23 percent).
A slight downward trend in the number of students in the computer science subject group has stopped since 2019. Bitkom referred to figures from Destatis, according to which 72,389 new students were registered at German universities in 2022. In the same year, the number of degrees increased by a good seven percent to 34,385.
The companies had great hope for the Skilled Immigration Act introduced in 2020, which was intended to make the immigration of foreign skilled workers easier. This is an issue for one in five companies: eight percent have tried to specifically recruit IT specialists from abroad. 14 percent say they plan to do so. When asked about possible obstacles, three quarters of companies complain about a lack of information and 67 percent complain about the bureaucratic effort involved in recruiting. The recruited skilled workers also report bureaucratic hurdles (80 percent). Additionally, 62 percent say racism is a problem.
Source: Stern
