Lack of the right skills leads to failed recruitment attempts at tech companies
Despite high unemployment and economic turmoil, recruitment needs remain high among Swedish companies. This is especially true in the tech industry, where eight out of ten companies have tried to recruit new employees in the past six months, but four out of ten recruitment attempts have failed. This is according to a new survey launched today by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.
Recruitment needs among TechSverige's member companies remain high and are increasing over time
The results of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise's survey show that eight out of ten tech companies have tried to recruit employees in the past six months. This can be compared with 6 out of 10 recruitment attempts, which is the average for all companies in the survey.
Larger tech companies make more recruitment attempts than companies with fewer employees. Among companies with more than 50 employees, 99% said they had tried to recruit in the past six months. The corresponding share among companies with up to four employees was 37%.
System and software developers, engineers, project managers and technicians are the occupational roles most sought after by tech companies. This is largely in line with the results of TechSverige's latest report on skills needs in tech.
In recent years, the recruitment needs of tech companies have remained at high levels and have increased by three percent since 2021. The skills needs in the tech industry are well known and have also been confirmed in TechSverige's regular skills surveys. Our latest survey shows a need for 18,000 specialists annually until 2028.
However, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise's latest survey shows that far from all skills needs are met when recruiting new employees.
Almost four out of ten recruitment attempts fail
Among tech companies that have tried to recruit new employees in the past six months, almost 40% say they have failed.
Failed recruitment attempts have major consequences for tech companies. Almost half say it has prevented their planned expansion. Almost as many, 46%, say they have had to turn down business and assignments because of failed recruitment attempts.
Lack of the right skills is one of the key obstacles to unsuccessful recruitment attempts
The results of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise's survey show that tech companies face challenges in finding the right skills at all levels of education. The greatest difficulty is finding people with a university education, which is also the level of education that most tech companies are looking for.
There is also a high proportion of tech companies, 67%, who state that it is difficult to recruit from upper secondary vocational programs. It is important to put these responses in relation to the proportion that have actually sought skills at that level of education, which represents 20% of all tech companies that participated in the survey.
Applicants do not match the professional experience requirements
The lack of professional experience is an important reason why tech companies have difficulty finding the right skills. This is stated by eight out of ten tech companies in the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise's recruitment survey. High salary requirements and a lack of skilled workers are other reasons that hinder recruitment.
The requirements for professional experience are generally high in the tech industry. This is also shown in TechSverige's latest skills survey, where all roles except one (support) require at least three years of professional experience. The requirements are highest when it comes to leadership skills, but they are almost as high when it comes to information and cyber security.
High standards of professional experience are a challenge both for tech companies to find the skills and for applicants to meet the requirements. But there are steps to take. For prospective and current students, it is important to choose a course with strong links to the world of work. This could mean, for example, applying for a programme that includes an internship or doing your degree project/thesis at a tech company. Internships and trainee programmes are also important stepping stones to the more senior roles that are in demand in the industry.
For tech companies and the tech industry, there is still work to be done to lower the barriers to tech jobs and broaden the recruitment of employees of different ages and experience. This may also involve creating clearer career paths or career ladders at different levels within the organization and company.
An important prerequisite for being able to take on and develop junior employees is the opportunity for continuous skills development. There are many good examples of this in the tech industry, but there are also major differences. For small and medium-sized enterprises that lack strategic HR functions, it is particularly challenging to work strategically with skills supply.
TechSverige believes that better opportunities are needed for organizations to invest in their employees' skills. Such investments can have a direct impact on the productivity and efficiency of the company. An important solution is to strengthen the incentives and opportunities for tax deductions for investments in skills development.
Solutions to the skills shortage
Since 2012, TechSverige has conducted regular surveys on the need for digital excellence. The results of our surveys and other studies have consistently pointed to a significant shortage. This skills shortage cannot be explained solely by a high economic situation, but is structural and persistent over time.
Meeting this challenge and strengthening Sweden's competitiveness requires determined action and clear targets. Countries such as South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands and Canada, have already acted in this direction by training and developing IT specialists on a large scale.
The government should, as several other countries have done, set a clear target of an increase of 100,000 IT specialists by 2030 and work to achieve the goal. It is critical that Sweden acts decisively to avoid falling behind. To achieve this, both long-term and short-term measures are necessary. Reforms are needed to make the education system as a whole more responsive to the skills needs of the tech sector and the rest of the labor market, as well as measures to attract more people to tech jobs.
Read more about TechSverige's proposals in the report: TECHSVERIGE-RAPPORT-KOMPETENSBEHOVEN-INOM-TECH-ONLINE-VERSION.pdf
Ana Andric
Business policy expert
TechSverige