Industry association warns:

Auto-saved draft

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

The acute shortage of IT specialists in the German economy will increase significantly in the coming years if no countermeasures are taken. According to a long-term study by the digital association Bitkom, there will be a shortage of around 663,000 IT specialists by 2040 if politicians do not take decisive countermeasures. The association assumes that 149,000 vacancies in the IT sector cannot currently be filled.

The large gap will arise in the coming years, primarily due to the increasing demand for programmers, system administrators and other IT specialists. A total of 1.92 million positions will need to be filled by 2040. However, this demand will only be matched by a supply of 1.26 million skilled workers.

Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst said that in addition to these figures, there are thousands of vacancies with an IT focus in administrations, schools or scientific institutions. "The shortage of IT specialists, which has been worsening for years, affects the entire country and is slowing down the urgently needed digitalization." An ever-increasing skills gap in IT means a loss of competitiveness, added value, growth and prosperity. "Without IT specialists, Germany is gambling away its digital future," said Wintergerst.

Without IT specialists, Germany is gambling away its digital future.

Bitkom-Präsident Ralf Wintergerst

However, the industry association explained that the gap could largely be closed with a series of countermeasures. For example, around 108,000 additional skilled workers could enter the market by 2040 if more students and trainees could be recruited, girls and women could be encouraged to take up IT and drop-out rates in IT could be reduced. In order to achieve this goal, however, computer science would have to become a compulsory subject from secondary school level 1 in all federal states and more chairs for computer science, digitalization and artificial intelligence would have to be established.

Older employees should stay longer
One countermeasure would also be to keep older employees beyond retirement age. This could activate 68,500 additional skilled workers by 2040. A further 129,500 additional skilled workers could be recruited if interested people from other professions were enabled and facilitated to enter the IT sector. However, all the measures in Germany would not be enough, said Wintergerst. However, over 320,000 skilled workers could be recruited from abroad. "We cannot close the gap on our own."

In order to increase the required immigration, the effect of the Skilled Immigration Act must be strengthened through measures. For example, immigration procedures need to be digitized in a standardized way. Bitkom also called for the immigration authorities to be restructured into "welcome agencies" and for international marketing for Germany as an IT location. "These people are being courted worldwide. Germany must remain an open, tolerant and free society if we are to be attractive to them," said Wintergerst.