BERLIN – German companies are increasingly struggling to find skilled staff to fill positions in information technology, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Monday (21).
A survey of companies revealed that as many as 69% were having difficulties, compared with just 46% four years ago, Destatis said.
Among German companies employing at least 10 people, 19% reported in 2019 that they employed in-house IT experts, down from 21% in 2015.
Companies are often calling in outside experts to deal with IT security issues, such as security tests or dealing with security breaches, with around half of all companies seeking help from independent providers.
The rising demand for IT skills is being reflected in increased interest in the relevant training courses. Over the 10 years up to the winter semester of 2019-20, the number of students studying computer and information technology at German universities rose by 83% to 238,000.
This was much faster than the overall rise in students over the same period, by 36% to a little under 2.9 million.
-dpa