IT Talent Gap Still Growing: Ways to Solve This Problem in 2023

All modern businesses are highly dependent on software and the tech experts who operate this space, but is it possible that companies will experience a shortage of such specialists, especially in the IT industry? The number of graduates in Computer Information Sciences and Support Services has grown by more than by 12% in recent years, but despite that, analysts predict that the global talent gap will exceed 85 million workers by 2030, which is equal to the population of countries such as Germany and Turkey.

Why is this happening, and is it possible to cope with this problem in 2023? We will discuss this growing need for tech experts in this article and suggest practical solutions to this problem.

Global Tech Talent Shortage

The global IT market grew from $8179.48 billion in 2022 to $8852.41 billion in 2023, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.2%. This tendency is expected to remain at the same rate by 2030. However, this impressive growth happens along with an increasing talent shortage that has become tougher to cope with for the previous 5 years. 

There has always been a difficulty for employers to find the people they need. However, this tendency decreased significantly in 2009 when the gap dropped by 10% and was at 30%, but since that time the annual shortage has only been growing and reached an overwhelming 69% in 2021. In 2023 the global talent shortage has reached its 16-year-high, since 75% of recruiters can’t find enough qualified experts with the necessary professional expertise and the range of skills they want them to possess. 

Talent Shortage Around the World and the Challenges it may Lead to:

The global staffing shortage has reached 75%, including education, health, and government specialists. However, IT and data professionals are the most sought-after employees. A worldwide survey of IT decision-makers made in 2022 has shown that 62% of respondents consider the shortage of IT talent to be a real threat to their companies. This number is even higher in the Asia-Pacific region, reaching 66%, but the following countries are the record-holders when it comes to the talent gap:

• Taiwan – 88%
• Portugal – 85%
• Singapore – 84%
• China – 83%
• Hong Kong – 83%
• India – 83%

Even the US, one of the biggest technical service consumers, faces the same difficulties. The shortage of tech experts in this country is a little below the world’s average – 74%. Therefore, businesses should look for effective ways to deal with this daunting problem to secure themselves from the possible difficulties it may bring about.

US Tech Talent Shortage

The report provided by the Manpower group says the primary concern of 46% of US employers is to find tech talent. Lack of skilled employees, and the absence of the desire to develop and study in this field, will result in over 5 million unfilled jobs by 2030. The highest unmet demand is for the following skills:

• Cyber Security
• Big Data
• Software Engineers
• AI and Machine Learning
• Robotics
• Blockchain

Talent shortage has led to the situation where only 6 positions out of 10 get filled, and the process of hiring professionals in the US tends to be much longer than previously.

Employers should decide how to balance their growth with the tech talent shortage by choosing from the following range of solutions: including employee engagement programs, hiring tech experts on demand, collaborating with already existing professional teams, and adding agility and flexibility to their existing teams.

2 Major Factors Impacting Tech Talent Demand in 2023

It goes without saying that the demand for tech talent is being influenced by many factors. It can be affected by reasons  such as the business location, the country’s demographics, supply and demand, the percentage of educated people in the region, and the quality of their education, their expected salary amount, and many other considerations. All of these have a passive impact on the tech talent demand, but there are two main factors that influence this problem most importantly in 2023, and we are going to highlight them below.

How has COVID-19 Impacted Tech Talent Demand?

It is a common truth that the coronavirus pandemic has made a significant impact on digital transformation. The necessity to train internal employees has caused the need to get new tech resources that will make it possible to handle different operations both on-site and at a distance.

The absence of such resources or the lack of has only increased skill gaps that play an important role in the company’s success. It has led to the breaks in hiring new professionals and the necessity for companies to come out of their comfort zones and embrace the latest technologies and solutions to remain competitive in the market. In turn, it increased demand for software development services and, consequently, software developers, designers, project managers, and others. 

How did the War Affect the Demand for Technical Talent?

The tech markets of Russia and Belarus have been large sources of IT specialists. European and US companies used to hire tech experts from these countries, but the Russian war against Ukraine has made it impossible to continue cooperation with them. Reputable IT companies don’t want to be associated with sponsoring the deaths of innocent people, so they would rather experience a tech talent shortage.

Of course, many Russian tech experts have left their country and moved to Europe, Georgia, Turkey, and other destinations, because of the impressive decrease in IT vacancies in their motherland. However, it hasn’t changed the situation drastically, and the demand was redistributed between other locations.

According to Snezhana Khadzhy, our internal recruitment expert, the biggest war in the 21st century changed the landscape of the IT talent market of Ukraine and all the rest of the world too.

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Aimed to meet their clients’ needs, many Ukrainian companies have opened their entities in Europe, and they ensure the same conditions for clients and candidates as the local businesses. At the same time, global companies with offices in Ukraine and local outsourcing companies began to hire employees in Europe, (mainly in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia).

Growing demand for professionals in these countries has led to an increase in tech experts’ salaries. A similar situation existed in Ukraine before the Covid-19 pandemic, when candidates received more than 20 offers a day, and companies were competing with each other to get skilled and experienced employees.

How to Navigate the IT Talent Gap

Undoubtedly, there are plenty of articles that describe this problem, but here you can find not only practical solutions, but also advice from our recruitment experts.

Reconsider Hiring Remote Employees if You Still Stick to the Office Model

The majority of companies still want their employees to work in their offices. However, not all people want to leave the comfort of their homes, since many of them got used to their cozy homes during the 2 years of the Covid pandemic. Sticking to the office model leads to a narrowed circle of available candidates.

Therefore, we recommend exploring the possibility of hiring remote employees. Naturally, this requires the introduction of the necessary HR practices for these people to become an integral part of your team and work together smoothly, but there are also many benefits of making this decision:

• reduction of office overhead;
• access to a wider pool of talented employees;
• possibility to scale back and forth according to your workload demands;
• higher productivity scores (remote and hybrid workers are 4% more productive than office employees);
• better for the environment (less commuting leads to lower carbon emissions).

All this proves that remote employees can bring about more advantages for businesses and help to bridge the tech talent gap.

Discover New Locations for IT Recruitment

Globalization has erased borders all around the world, so hiring employees in other countries is traditional nowadays. Therefore, companies should look for new locations that may open them up to not only a wide talent pool, but also allow them to save costs and enjoy flexibility, as salaries of foreign employees may often be lower than those of the local talent. 

We are always ready to analyze your requirements and recommend the best locations in accordance with them.

Table “Suggested alternative locations from StaffingPartner team”

Ask Recruitment Professionals for Help

If you see that you can’t cope with the IT talent shortage on your own, and feel that recruiting globally is a tough task for your team, asking for professional assistance is a convenient and intelligent option. Recruitment agencies like StaffingPartner help clients to find the perfect people for their open job positions, as well as assist candidates with finding well-paid jobs and development opportunities all around the globe. 

When you turn to a recruitment agency, you get an unmatched number of benefits:

• spending a minimum of time on hiring your dream candidates;
• getting high-quality candidates with expertise in the necessary area, experience, and relevant skills;
• using professional recruitment knowledge in a specific area;
• paying money to the recruitment agency only when an ideal candidate has been found and can serve your clients’ needs;
• having a better knowledge of the market;
• getting access to an extended search to find the right people who aren’t ordinarily among job seekers.

Are you ready to entrust professionals who will maximize the number of applicants and choose the strongest and most suitable candidates for each position?

Grow Internal Talent

You should always remember that the best employees are those who develop within a company. Therefore, companies should boost their internal talent mobility and development in all possible ways. 

Experts advise investing in training and mentoring, getting the right technology and software, incentivizing employees to stay in the company, consider succession planning, etc. All this should be done on the basis of tracking employees’ interests and expertise, democratizing their work, and ensuring the agility and flexibility of all departments and teams in the company.

As you can see, there are many ways to resolve the talent shortage issue, but let’s dig deeper into global IT recruitment as a solution to this problem.

How сan Global IT Recruitment Help You in Filling Tech Talent Gaps?

It’s always better to turn to professionals when it comes to global hiring. There are different talent markets, regulations, salaries and specifics, so you need somebody to consult you at the professional level. 

At StaffingPartner we have senior recruitment professionals experienced in different locations all over the world. They possess fundamental industry knowledge and always develop their skills to keep up with the latest trends. It allows them to provide rapid access to competent candidates via consistently improving recruiting tools, and offer customers a personal approach. Furthermore, we have a 300K candidate database covering most technologies in the most popular locations, so there isn’t a better solution for companies who feel the risk of this threat or suffer from an IT talent gap.

Bottom Line

These challenges can be quite intimidating, but the problem of talent shortage can be solved with the right professional assistance. Hiring globally is a great way to deal with the talent gap, and agencies like StaffingPartner could be vitally helpful for you in this situation. If you don’t want to lose any of your clients because of a lack of qualified employees, and wish to contribute to your company’s success by getting the best candidates for every position, turn to professional recruiters, and you’ll forget about talent shortage challenges.