EU nations employ 8m ICT specialists in 2016

The European Union (EU) nations employed 8.2 million persons in 2016 as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) specialists, representing 3.7 percent of total employment, official data revealed on Tuesday.

The Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, said in a statement that over recent years, both the number and the share of ICT specialists in total employment have continuously risen in the bloc.

These data are used for several EU policies, in particular the initiatives under the Digital Single Market strategy, according to Eurostat.

In 2016, the data showed that compared with 2011, both the absolute number and the share of ICT specialists in total employment increased in almost all member states.

At EU level between 2011 and 2016, the number of ICT specialists rose by 1.8 million persons and their share in total employment grew from 3 percent to 3.7 percent, said Eurostat.

According to the data, three member states accounted for half of all ICT specialists employed in the EU, namely Britain (1.6 million persons), Germany (1.5 million) and France (1.0 million).

At the same time, Finland recorded the highest share of ICT specialists in 2016, which was 6.6 percent. It was followed by Sweden's 6.3 percent and Estonia's 5.3 percent.

In contrast, Greece recorded the lowest share which was 1.4 percent in ICT specialists recruiting in 2016. It was followed by Romania's 2 percent.

Notably, in 2016, 41 percent of enterprises in the bloc which recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists reported hard-to-fill vacancies.

The data showed that Czech Republic witnessed the highest percentage which was 66 percent. Slovenia ranked the second which was 63 percent. Luxembourg and Austria ranked the third, which were both 61 percent.