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A KOFA study from December 2020 provides some insight into developments within the IT industry during the pandemic. While specialists for online sales and digitalization projects were increasingly sought after, demand in other areas dropped due to the general economic situation. The IT industry has been suffering from a shortage of specialists since 2010. This is reflected in the general shortage of skilled labor, illustrated by the number of vacancies that remain open due to a lack of suitable candidates. For IT specialists, this number is currently at around 20,000.
Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat closed the gap between availability of and demand for IT specialists from 24,000 last year to 20,000 now, this gap varies depending on the degree of professional qualification. IT specialists who have had non-academic training are much less sought after than experts with a university degree. The gap for non-academic IT specialists is 1,771, compared with almost 17,000 – ten times as much – for university graduates.
The gap between the availability and the demand for specialists cannot be closed, and can hardly even be narrowed, by domestic efforts. Even though in recent years more and more young people are studying or training in the IT sector, the gap has not become any smaller. One possible solution is to recruit specialists from abroad. Currently, 10% of all IT specialists working in Germany are not German nationals. This figure is set to rise even further after the pandemic, once travel restrictions are relaxed. Recruiting specialists from abroad presents a challenge for many companies, considering their lack of experience in this area.
The shortage of specialists in Germany makes it almost impossible to find new staff by simply advertising job openings. To recruit suitable specialists from abroad for your company, you need a highly skilled partner with an outstanding international network. The best solution for attracting specialists from both Germany and abroad is BESTMINDS. BESTMINDS Executive Search will ensure that your IT specialist and managerial positions are filled quickly with suitably qualified employees, without having to slow down your operations or sales activities. Christian Männlin, our IT expert and Managing Partner, will be at your disposal to help you find skilled staff for all areas of information technology, from industry-specific IT for high-tech industries to “traditional” information technology as well as digital and online media. Please do not hesitate to contact us to talk about how to fill your vacancies when you need to – no strings attached.
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