Lack of IT talents in the Nordics

The Nordic countries are all ranked among the top 15 best countries to do business according to Forbes in 2017. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland have all seen a great increase in flow of venture capital for new and emerging startups. This increase is predicted to continue with this past year setting the highest record yet. With so many companies investing and stimulating the market growth, the demand for skilled IT developers will increase with it.

According to Hays Global Skills Index in 2017 Sweden and Denmark hold the first and third ranked spots for the highest labor market stress level. The main reasons for this talent shortage include the education systems inability to adopt to the current job market, matching employee skills with current existing jobs, and the rising wage pressures. If things continue as they are, Denmark is expected to be short 19,000 IT professionals by 2030 due to talent mismatches. Finland is in the same boat with a current need for around 7,000 software developers. In Sweden, the situation is even more dire with an estimated lack of IT talents of up to 70 000 people by year 2022 already.

This shortage of skills can greatly affect the outcome of businesses and reduce the ability for them to grow. This can become a huge problem for the Nordic countries because if they don’t get anything back from the large amounts of investment capital they are receiving they will fail to keep their business running. There are a couple different solutions to solving this, the most common choices include relocating foreign specialists and setting up offshore development teams. Many things to think about when considering these options, but there is the ability to work with a professional development partner, like Otivr who makes it easy to find the right developers for recruitment or remote co-operation that fit your business needs.