IT Insights: 149,000 unfilled IT positions in Germany, but the problem is home-grown! (BITKOM survey)

The annual skills shortage survey from BITKOM, the German industry association for IT and telecommunications, has come out. BITKOM has run this survey for over a decade. And the insights are always thrilling. *sarcasm off*

The fact that, yet again, the number of positions that companies were unable to fill has risen is by no means a surprise. This pattern of rising numbers has only been disrupted once significantly — by the pandemic.

One would think that mass layoffs would an effect. But we see none of that in the statistics:

It also doesn’t come as a any surprise that it usually takes a whopping 7.7 months to fill an IT position. Nor is it unusual that positions in IT are harder to fill than, let’s say, in HR.

What is astonishing is the source of qualification. Unlike in many other countries, specifically those with a strong IT sector, only a small share of IT experts graduated from an institution of higher education (16%) or at least attended one (17%).