EU set to miss digital decade ICT target by 5 million jobs as non-EU hiring surges

Europe is on course to fall short of its ambitious Digital Decade goal of employing 20 million information and communications technology (ICT) specialists by 2030. A new Eurofound report published on 28 July 2026 warns that the EU will miss the target by around 5 million jobs, even though ICT employment is expanding rapidly.

Between 2011 and 2024 the number of ICT specialists in the EU rose by 81%, from 5.6 million to 10.3 million. Employment in the core IT consultancy and software services sector more than doubled, growing by 128% to reach 5 million workers. Annual growth in the sector stands at 7–8%, far outpacing the overall employment growth rate of just over 1%. Yet 57% of EU firms with open IT vacancies reported difficulties filling positions in 2024, particularly for senior and specialised roles in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure.

Growing reliance on non-EU talent

Education and vocational training systems across most member states are failing to supply enough graduates to meet demand. As a result, labour migration from outside the EU has become a primary recruitment channel. In 2024, 11.9% of ICT specialists were born outside the EU, up sharply from 9.2% in 2021. This 2.7 percentage-point rise in just three years underlines the sector’s increasing dependence on global talent.

Stark national and demographic divides

The share of ICT specialists in total employment varies widely. In 2024 it reached 8.6% in Sweden, 8% in Luxembourg and 7.8% in Finland, but stood at only 2.5% in Greece and 2.8% in Romania. Estonia more than doubled its share from 3.4% to 7.2% between 2011 and 2024, while Greece recorded only marginal progress.

Demographic imbalances compound the challenge. Women remain heavily under-represented, accounting for just 19% of ICT specialists in 2024. The gender pay gap in the broader sector was nearly 20% in 2022, well above the economy-wide average of 13%. Female specialists also report lower satisfaction with pay, reduced access to training and higher work intensity.

Age profiles are shifting unevenly. While workers aged 35 and under make up 37% of the EU ICT workforce, several Central and Eastern European countries have seen sharp declines in the youth share – 18.6 percentage points in Slovakia and 13.4 points in Romania – largely due to brain drain toward Western European hubs. Malta (52%) and Lithuania (51.3%) retain the youngest workforces, whereas Italy (28.7%) and Finland (31.7%) face longer-term replacement risks.

Policy implications

Eurofound concludes that addressing the shortfall requires targeted action focused on expanding the domestic talent pipeline and improving intra-EU mobility rather than further improvements to job quality, which is already above average in pay and conditions. Closing the gender employment gap is described as an urgent economic necessity: failing to attract more women means operating with less than three-quarters of the potential talent pool.

To bridge the remaining gap, the report urges member states to make better use of existing European instruments such as EURES and Erasmus+ to reduce geographic mismatches, while continuing to streamline legal migration pathways for highly skilled non-EU workers.

The findings raise a pointed question: is the EU’s digital strategy being undermined by inadequate coordination between education, labour-market and migration policies? Without faster progress on domestic skills development and gender inclusion, the bloc risks remaining structurally dependent on external talent even as it pursues technological sovereignty.

Caption: Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy Henna Virkkunen arrives to deliver a Commission statement on ‘Achieving digital sovereignty and resilience for Europe in light of recent developments affecting access to advanced AI technologies’ at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, 16 June 2026. EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS