ICT Specialists’ Workforce Grew in 2020 in EU

In 2020, about 8 million people in the EU worked as ICT specialists or 4.3% of the total EU workforce. This share was 0.4 percentage point (pp) greater than in 2019, when ICT specialists accounted for 3.9 % of total employment.

While the share of the ICT specialist has been on the increase in the EU since 2011, rising by 1.3pp in that period, last year also saw an increase in the rate of change. Between 2019 and 2020, the growth rate was 7.5 % compared to the average annual growth rate of 5.2 % over the past decade. This could be linked to the acceleration of the digital transformation affecting the whole economy.

At the national level, the share of ICT specialists in employment was highest in Finland (7.6%) and Sweden (7.5%), while relatively high shares were also observed in Estonia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark (all above 5%). The smallest shares were observed in Greece (2%) and Romania (2.4%).

The vast majority of persons employed as ICT specialists in the EU were men. In the EU as a whole, women accounted for 18.5% of them. Nonetheless, the rate of increase for women ICT specialists has been higher than for men since 2011, so that the gender gap has decreased over the past decade by 3pp.

At the national level, the highest shares of women among employed ICT specialists were observed in Bulgaria (28.2%), Greece (26.5%) and Romania (26.2%), while the smallest shares were observed in Hungary (12.3%), Malta (11%) and Czechia (10.3%).