67% of Maltese enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit information and communication technologies (ICT) specialists in 2018 found it hard to do so, information issued by Eurostat shows.
Hiring expertise in ICT was a challenge for businesses in the European Union (EU) in general. During 2018, 9% of EU enterprises recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists. More than half of these enterprises (58%) reported that they had problems filling vacancies requiring relevant ICT skills.
This means that in Malta, companies found it harder the recruit such specialists than the EU on average.
Among the EU Member States, enterprises in Romania found it most difficult to recruit ICT specialists. Although only 3% of Romanian enterprises recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists during 2018, 90% of them found it hard to fill these vacancies. Recruitment of ICT specialists was challenging for enterprises also in Czechia, where 80% found it hard to fill such vacancies, as well as in Austria (74%) and Sweden (72%). In contrast, the proportion of businesses finding it difficult to recruit ICT specialists was below 40% only in Spain (27%) and Greece (38%).
The statistics also showed that, in terms of the EU as a whole, It is becoming more and more challenging for enterprises in the EU to fill their vacancies for ICT specialists. The share of enterprises who found it hard to fill these vacancies stood at 37% in 2013 and 38% in 2014. However, this share has risen sharply by 4-6 percentage points every year since, reaching a peak in 2018.