Europe’s race to build a larger digital workforce is losing pace, with the EU now projected to miss its 2030 goal by five million jobs, according to new findings from Eurofound.
The Dublin-based EU research agency said the bloc is on course to fall short of its Digital Decade target of employing 20 million information and communications technology (ICT) specialists by 2030.
Its latest report warns that education, vocational education and training systems in most EU member states are not producing enough workers to meet either current needs or future demand.
That gap has made labour migration from outside the EU one of the main routes for employers seeking to fill ICT roles.
Ireland has recorded a marked rise in ICT employment, the study found, with the sector increasing from 4.7% of total employment in 2011 to 6.3% in 2024.
However, Ireland also has a smaller share of younger workers in the sector than the EU average.
Across the bloc, 37.2% of ICT workers in 2024 were aged 35 or under, compared with 34.4% in Ireland.
At EU level, ICT specialists accounted for 5% of total employment in 2024, up from 3% in 2011.
Over the same period, the number of ICT specialists grew sharply, climbing 81% from 5.6 million to 10.3 million.
The report also points to a persistent gender imbalance. Women made up fewer than one in five ICT specialists in 2024, while the gender pay gap across the wider sector stood at almost 20% in 2022, significantly above the 13% average across the economy.
“The research highlights that addressing these shortages requires targeted policy intervention focused on domestic talent supply and mobility rather than job quality adjustments, as IT roles already feature above-average pay and working conditions,” according to Eurofound.
“Closing the gender employment gap is an urgent economic necessity, as failing to attract women means operating with less than three-quarters of the potential talent pool,” it added.
Eurofound is an EU agency based in Dublin that provides information, advice and expertise on working conditions, industrial relations, and labour market change.
