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.
© 2019 ACM 0001-0782/19/4 $15.00
Proportion of ICT specialists in total employment.
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
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8
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Source: Eurostat (online data codes: isoc_sks_itspt)
Proportion of ICT specialists in total employment, 2017 (%)
Index of the number of persons employed as ICT specialists.
3.2%
36.1%
140
Index of the number of persons employed
as ICT specialists and total employment, EU- 28, 2007–2017
(2007 = 100)
130
120
110
100
90
2007
(
1) 2011: break in series.
Source: Eurostat (online data codes: isoc_sks_itspt and lfsa_egan)
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
I TC specialists (
1) Total employment