The Austrian economy currently lacks up to 28,000 IT specialists, 12,000 in companies in the IT sector alone. This is the conclusion of a study by the Industrial Science Institute. This shortfall will cost the Austrian economy dearly.
According to Alfred Harl, president of the professional association for management consulting, accounting and IT of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, the shortage of IT specialists is due to IT training in Austria. 37.5 percent of students in the ICT field drop out and at some institutions the dropout rate is even more than 50 percent.
“Reducing the average dropout rate by 10 percent to 27.5 percent would mean that the IT industry has 2,000 more graduates,” Harl notes. In addition, the president of the association is in favor of regular monitoring to find out the reasons for the dropout and to keep the students focused on their studies. But according to Harl, an increase in the proportion of women by ten percent would also have a positive effect on the labor market and mean an increase of 1,500 female graduates.
According to the study, IT companies can currently meet only 75 percent of their skilled labor needs. There is a shortage of 5,800 IT specialists in Vienna, 1,600 in Upper Austria and 1,500 in Styria. But IT employees are also badly needed in Tyrol (900), Lower Austria (750), Carinthia (750), Salzburg (400), Vorarlberg (250) and Burgenland (100). For the economy, this means a loss of added value of up to 4.9 billion euros or 175,000 euros per vacancy per year.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
