EU risks missing digital jobs target by five million, despite rapid tech growth

The EU is on course to miss its flagship Digital Decade target of employing 20 million information and communications technology (ICT) specialists by 2030, according to a new Eurofound report. Missing the target by around five million workers raises questions whether Brussels is doing enough to tackle persistent skills shortages, improve working conditions, and retain talent. “The results are not surprising in the slightest,” Kevin Flynn, policy and communications adviser at Eurocadres, told EUobserver. Employment in the ICT sector has expanded rapidly over the past decade, growing by 7-8 percent annually, compared with just over one percent across the wider economy. But the report concludes that education and vocational training systems are failing to produce enough skilled workers to meet demand. As a result, employers are increasingly turning to labour migration from outside the EU to fill vacancies. “It highlights the detachment from reality we see with this Commission’s political choices,” said Flynn, pointing to one of the report’s findings: only around one in five EU companies provided ICT-specific training for employees in 2023. According to Flynn, the shortage reflects a broader failure to create conditions that allow workers to build digital skills while remaining in the profession. "Expecting workers to find the time and money to train themselves is unrealistic," Flynn said. The criticism comes as Eurofound's own research shows that almost 39.4 million workers across Europe are contacted for work-related reasons outside normal working hours several times each month, adding to concerns about work-life balance.