The Center for City Development Policy has prepared an overview of the dynamics of the number of specialists in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the EU (2014-2024).

According to Eurostat, ICT specialists are defined as “workers who have the ability to develop, operate and maintain ICT systems, and for whom ICT constitutes the main part of their job”.

We believe that this indicator reflects the real level of digitalization of businesses and the demand for professional specialists in different countries and industries.

Large businesses lead the share of companies employing ICT workers. According to 2024 results, 78.1% of large companies have ICT departments or employees to develop, manage, and support ICT systems (both their own and SaaS solutions). Over the past 10 years, the number of such companies has grown by 2.7 percentage point (p.p.).

Medium-sized businesses require their own ICT specialists almost twice as infrequently (43%). Small businesses (with 10 to 49 employees) employ ICT specialists in only 14% of cases. We believe that if ICT activities are not core to a small company's business, they tend to outsource services and ICT solutions.

Interestingly, the situation in small businesses within the EU is not uniform. While the EU average shows only 14% of small businesses employing ICT specialists, Malta boasts 27.6% of its small businesses with ICT specialists. This is nearly double the EU average. Malta is followed by Ireland (25.4%), Hungary (24%), Denmark (23.2%), and Finland (23%). Notably, the leaders in the number of small businesses with ICT specialists exhibit strong positive growth. Poland (+14 pp) and Malta (+9.4 pp) are champions in growth over the past 10 years.

We believe that the increased share of small businesses utilizing ICT is primarily driven by the development and increased availability of pre-built solutions and services. Acquiring software programs or accessing services is generally more cost-effective than developing and maintaining in-house systems.

In the medium-sized business, the growth in the number of companies with ICT specialists surpasses that of small companies.

While the share of medium-sized companies with ICT specialists varies across countries, this variation is less pronounced compared to small enterprises. The average share of medium-sized companies employing ICT specialists is 42%, with Denmark (58.4%), Belgium (57.9%), and Finland (57.8%) leading the pack. The top ten also includes the Netherlands, Malta, and Hungary. Poland (+22.4 pp) and Malta (+11.1 pp) emerged as leaders in terms of growth over the past 10 years.

On average across Europe, 78.0% of large companies employ ICT specialists. Belgium (89.5%), Denmark (89%), Finland (89%), Hungary (88.6%), and Poland (88.1%) lead in the share of large companies with ICT workers. Greece (+18.1 pp) and Poland (+14.6 pp) experienced the largest increases over the past 10 years.

This demonstrates that the largest companies actively seek to implement both external and internal ICT solutions, enabling them to gain unique competitive advantages and establish effective management systems. In-house ICT teams contribute to increased system reliability and reduced operating costs.

We also analyzed the difficulties encountered by companies trying to attract new ICT workers in 2024. The most common problems reported by companies were lack of applications, lack of relevant qualifications of applicants (education/training), lack of relevant work experience, and too high salary expectations.

Companies in Malta (56%), the Czech Republic, and Germany (54% each) reported the biggest problems with high employee expectations. In contrast, this was a much less frequent concern in Norway (18%) and Spain (21%). Generally, Norway, Spain, and Poland reported minimal difficulties in hiring ICT employees.

Overall, hiring challenges, if present, tend to occur across all four problem areas equally. This likely reflects the balance of supply and demand in the ICT labor market and the effectiveness of migration policies aimed at attracting ICT specialists.

However, the relative importance of these problems varies across countries. For instance, the Netherlands faces significant challenges with the number of applications and the insufficient education of candidates, while work experience and salary expectations are less problematic. Belgium and Austria exhibit similar trends.

Conversely, Portugal, Hungary, Latvia, and Greece experience fewer issues with application numbers and education levels compared to salary expectations.

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Rubric: labor market, labour market, ICT specialist, IT, best countries to work, recruitment problems, small business, medium enterprises.

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