More and more IT positions remain unfilled

There are now 96,000 jobs up for grabs. Startups in particular urgently need software specialists and the like. The Bitkom association wants to improve the situation through training, the advancement of women and qualified immigration.

The economy lacks more and more personnel to take care of digital processes. A study by Bitkom, the German information and telecommunications industry association, shows: The number of vacancies for IT specialists has risen to 96,000 across all industries in 2021. That is 12 percent more than in the previous year. At that time, 86,000 jobs were already unfilled.

At the end of 2021, two-thirds of the companies surveyed (65 percent) are struggling with a shortage of IT specialists. Start-ups in particular are often unable to offer employees as good conditions as large companies. This makes it even more difficult for affected young companies to find suitable personnel. At the same time, they often need digital workers particularly urgently. IT experts, meanwhile, are in such high demand that they are often comparatively free to choose their job. Software specialists, IT project managers and coordinators, IT application administrators and IT administrators, among others, are in particularly high demand.

An improvement in the personnel situation is apparently not in sight: 66 percent of companies expect the shortage of IT specialists to become even more acute in the future. Bitkom is therefore calling for efforts to strengthen the position of women in the IT industry and to promote qualified immigration, in addition to better training and continuing education.

The study is based on a representative survey of more than 850 companies from all sectors. This has been conducted regularly since 2011. Since then, the number of vacant jobs has only once been higher than last year: in the pre-Corona year 2019, there had been a gap of 124,000 unfilled positions.