Communications of the ACM

age.f Europe does have quite a significant unemployment rate of 65.3% for those under 24 years old. Postsecondary education also plays a role in the ICT population as over 62% of all ICT specialists in the EU have completed tertiary level education,g with the highest shares of this attainment found in Lithuania, Ireland, Cyprus, and Spain.

The vast majority of people employed as ICT specialists are men. They account for 82.8% of the total ICT workforce.h The number of women in ICT has actually decreased by 5% during the last 10 years, with only slight increases noted in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. However, Bulgaria has the highest proportion of women in ICT as they account for 26.5% of the workforce. The total

f http://bit.ly/2S3dJJt
g http://bit.ly/2CAWy8f
h http://bit.ly/2MpOSuj
proportion of employed
women in the EU (across all
sectors) is 66.4%, but rises
well above those figures in
countries like Germany
( 75.2%), Estonia ( 75.1%), and
Finland ( 72.4%).

The dear need of ICT spe-
cialists. The demand for ICT
i http://bit.ly/2S8aReB
j http://bit.ly/2FSlaNi
reach over 900,000 workers.
Because the shortage is glob-
al, salaries have increased to
attract skilled individuals.
Salaries in the U.S., however,
are much higher.k For ex-
ample, the average salary for
a software developer in the
U.S. is $92,240 and $43,749
in France. This induces a
brain drain of talent, which
brings about two pernicious
side effects in Europe: lack
of senior specialists and lack
of qualified trainers for up-
coming workers. However, a
mere comparison of salaries
would be inaccurate. Work-
ers in France pay very little
for healthcare and have al-
most no education expenses
(both financed with taxes).
Most young workers start
their professional life with
no student loans to pay back.
The sectors where
demands are the highest
vary according to studies,
but all agree that big data
analytics and business
analyticsl are the most
sought-after.

Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Turkey are not members of the EU, but are located inside or close to the European continent. Is their position in the ICT ecosystem any different from EU members? Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland relate to the EU’s average statistics. Turkey, on the other hand, sets itself apart with just 0.9% of its workforce in ICT and only 10% of those are women.m Moreover, Turkey has almost two-thirds of its ICT workforce under the age of 34, which is the exact opposite of the EU numbers.

Europe’s Efforts
to Meet Demand for
ICT Specialists
Despite a variety of ICT
k http://bit.ly/2DqNRPI
l http://bit.ly/2FIkhYj
m http://bit.ly/2MpOSuj
opportunities available in
Europe, it lags behind the
U.S. and China. The brain
drain mentioned earlier and
the difficulty to standardize
actions throughout the vast
continent hinders efforts to
catch up.
Following the demands of
top IT scientists in 2018, the
European Laboratory for
Learning and Intelligent
Systems (ELLIS) was
founded last December.n
Focusing mainly on artificial
intelligence and, more
broadly, on machine
learning, they aim to create a
network to advance break-
throughs across the conti-
nent and educate the next
generation of AI researchers.
The U.K. invested £ 1
billion in artificial intelligen-
ceo in 2018 and created the
Centre for Data Ethics and
Innovation to monitor the AI
research.

The countries that lead the ICT sector in Europe today are the ones that invested a great deal of time and resources 20 years ago, especially in education. In order to catch up, much effort must be focused on developing computer science in school.

It appears that a huge potential ICT workforce resides with women. They must be encouraged, very early on in school, to embrace ICT careers. This would lead to a more balanced sector, improve women’s employment rates, and help reduce the shortage in ICT specialists.p n http://bit.ly/2FJZ9Re o http://bit.ly/2FIY2kN p http://bit.ly/2FSlziM

Lisa Korrigane is a freelance writer, reporting mostly on the technology market, startups, and digital policies in France. She is currently studying to become a Web developer.

Proportion of ICT specialists in total employment. 7

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3

2

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Source: Eurostat (online data codes: isoc_sks_itspt)
Proportion of ICT specialists in total employment, 2017 (%)