80% of businesses looking for ICT employees, due to high emigration

2023-08-29 07:19:00, Sociale CNA

The demand for information and technology workers (ICT) is growing at a faster pace than the possibilities of the education system in the country to prepare experts in this field, while emigration is endangering the existing specialists.

Over 80% of medium and large businesses and 54% of small ones reported that they had vacancies in the field of ICT in the last 12 months (2022) according to a study "Needs for skills related to computer programming, activities of the information service", which was published by INSTAT.

The companies claimed that applicants' aspiration to migrate is the main recruitment barrier for every occupation group in the ICT sector. Businesses have expressed that they did not prefer hiring candidates with future immigration plans, as it is costly and destructive to their business.

After emigration, "Insufficient work experience" is reported as the second biggest obstacle to finding employees, while other obstacles listed are "Insufficient skills", "unattractive salary level", etc. But the study notes that future emigration appears to have eclipsed all other difficulties in ICT-related pressures.

The authors of the study asked companies about the occupations and the corresponding number of employees who had left during the last 12 months (2022). The results showed that 1,095 employees had left (885 with an IT profile).

The average turnover of IT staff is 19%, which is 2.7 times higher than that of non-IT staff (7%). In terms of occupations, the largest group of employees who left their companies during the last 12 months is "engineers and software developers" (650 experts or 59% of those who left).

The second group that moves the most from the profession group is "system and network engineers" (186 experts or 17% of those who left).

The sector of ICT activities in Albania counts 2,180 businesses with 8,994 employees, of which 6,270 (70%) are engaged in ICT job profiles. The sector is mainly dominated by one-employee companies at around 74%, but the majority of employment comes from businesses with more than 1 employee, which contribute 82% of total employment.

The average age of companies in this sector is 6 years. More than 25% of the companies are in the start-up phase, while 14% have been operating for more than 10 years, and more than half have been established in the last 5 years.

Staff mobility after training (64%) is the top concern for companies, followed by workforce under-skilling (59%). Wages, work preferences and fiscal burden are of concern to less than 25% of companies.

Companies stated that employees leave for other employers (within and outside the sector), emigrate, or prefer to work as freelancers or start their own business./Monitor Magazine