Bitkom study: Germany lacks 137,000 IT specialists

The shortage has thus worsened once again. All industries are affected.

Across all sectors, Germany has a shortage of 137,000 IT specialists. That is the result of a Bitkom study on the labor market for IT specialists, as the IT Times reports. The researchers surveyed 854 companies. Before the Corona pandemic, 124,000 positions were unfilled across all industries. During the Corona pandemic, the figures were below 100,000, so the need for and shortage of skilled workers are on the rise.

Only eight percent of companies say the supply of IT specialists is sufficient. In contrast, 74 percent say there is a shortage and 70 percent expect the problem to worsen. 37 percent of the companies would also fill the positions with immigrant specialists from Russia and Belarus, after an official security check. Only one percent did so far.

Bitkom generally calls for lower barriers to the immigration of IT specialists. Within Germany, it said interest in studying computer science had fallen for the second year in a row, to 72,075 first-year students. In 2020, there were 3,000 more students. In 2021, 31,125 people graduated with a degree in computer science. That is why the immigration of qualified workers is indispensable, he said.