1. Economic Institute: IT specialists are much less in demand in Germany

The demand for IT personnel is falling “rapidly” in the economy as a whole. Jurek Tiedemann, an economist specializing in securing skilled workers, writes this in an analysis published on Monday by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW). The trend is having a particular impact on highly qualified IT experts. However, this does not apply to all sectors: For example, in the legal and tax consultancy sector, including auditing, the development is going against this trend.

The number of vacancies for qualified workers in Germany fell by 4.3 percent between 2023 and 2024, according to the study. However, this decline was significantly greater for IT professions at 26.2 percent. In absolute figures, the average number of IT vacancies fell by 16,500 to 46,431 last year.

According to the study, the significant decline is a consequence of the weak general economic development and growing economic uncertainties. Companies are cutting back on investments and postponing many projects, which directly reduces the demand for IT personnel. Although other sectors are also affected, the IT sector is weakening at an above-average rate.

Complex IT projects frozen

The decline hit IT experts with a Master’s or diploma degree the hardest. The number of vacancies for these highly specialized professionals fell by 33.7 percent to just 26,753 within a year. The slump was particularly drastic for computer scientists and business IT specialists (down 46.2 and 38.2 percent respectively). This is probably due to the fact that local companies are particularly reluctant to take on complex IT projects that require a great deal of expert knowledge.

There was also significantly less demand for IT workers at other requirement levels. The number of vacancies for trained IT specialists fell by 19.6% between 2023 and 2024. At 8.6 percent, the decline was slightly lower for IT specialists. This refers to experts who carry out a wide range of technical tasks related to hardware, software, networks and IT systems.

Slippage upwards

However, the demand for IT specialists developed differently depending on the sector, according to the report. A few sectors even recorded an increase. This was most evident in legal, tax consultancy and auditing, where the number of IT vacancies rose by 518.4 percent or 1770 positions. Tiedemann explains that this increase is related to the urgent digitalization of these sectors, for example through the use of artificial intelligence (AI). There was also a slight increase in civil engineering, energy supply and the insurance industry. Overall, however, demand for IT experts only increased in 25 of the 88 economic sectors surveyed by the Federal Statistical Office.

The biggest decline was in the IT services sector, where most skilled workers are employed. Here, 5821 fewer jobs were advertised, which corresponds to a drop of 31.6 percent. One possible reason for this is that companies are increasingly outsourcing IT tasks internally or abroad. The number of IT vacancies in the automotive industry also fell by more than a third (36.8%), reflecting the current crisis in this sector.

Effects of AI?

According to the author, there is no direct link between the decline in job vacancies and the use of AI. Current studies suggest that this key technology could even increase the demand for IT specialists in the future. It is currently seen as a support rather than a replacement for human labor. In the long term, however, the requirements for IT employees are likely to change: Dealing with AI will become more important, while routine tasks will be automated.

According to a recent study by payment service provider RationalFX, the impact of AI on the job market is becoming increasingly clear. Numerous companies are replacing hundreds of employees with automation tools, chatbots and even AI programming. The research team examined layoff announcements from the US news, the job portal TrueUp, TechCrunch and the tracker Layoffs.fyi since the beginning of 2025. Between the beginning of the year and August 5, companies in the global technology sector announced 149,140 layoffs. Around 71 percent of these affected US companies. Among the frontrunners are Intel and Microsoft.

Skills shortage persists

Although the demand for IT specialists has decreased, the shortage of skilled workers remains high in many areas, according to the IW analysis. In 2024, over 13,500 vacant IT positions could not be filled in purely mathematical terms. The shortage was particularly severe among IT experts, with 6920 vacancies remaining unfilled. This means that almost seven out of ten (69.9%) vacancies could not be filled mathematically.

Forecasts show that both employment and the shortage of skilled workers in IT professions are likely to reach new highs by 2028, says Tiedemann. In order to counteract this, measures such as the training of junior staff, the promotion of career changers and the recruitment and retention of international specialists will continue to be crucial.

(vbr)

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This article was originally published in

German.

It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.

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