According to calculations by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE), Poland lacks 147,000 IT specialists to make their share among all employees in our country the same as in the European Union. Examining the difference between the actual number of specialists and the value resulting from the potential of the economy, the deficit of specialists is estimated at 25 thousand persons.

In a survey conducted by PIE with the participation of companies from the sector, as many as 42% of vacancies for IT specialist positions were identified as difficult to fill. In addition, 64 % of the surveyed companies hired fewer IT specialists than they had planned, and 20% often had to turn down a project because there were not enough specialists. In order to fill the IT gap, 3.5 times more people in Poland should be graduating in STEM subjects, related to technology, engineering and mathematics, say PIE analysts in the report “How many IT specialists are missing in Poland?”.

Currently, IT specialists in Poland account for approx. 3.5% of all employees and this is one of the lower values in the EU. In the EU as a whole, specialists account for approx. 4.5% of the workforce, and the significant gap between Poland and the EU has persisted over the last decade”, says Ignacy Święcicki, head of the digital economy team at the Polish Economic Institute.

The results of a survey conducted by PIE allow experts to conclude that Polish companies have a problem finding IT specialists. Only 61% of the surveyed companies hired as many specialists as they had planned in the last year.

“Another problem is the decreasing number of technical graduates who could fill the IT gap, as well as the low share of women among technical students and IT specialists”, says Krystian Łukasik, senior analyst in the digital economy team.

Adrian Andrzejewski