Despite a strained economy: IT job market picks up again
After a drop in demand last year, the job market for IT specialists is picking up again, according to recruitment agency Hays.
(Bild: fizkes/ Shutterstock.com)
The demand for IT specialists on the job market is on the rise again, according to the specialist index published by HR service provider Hays. Compared to the previous quarter, in which the number of advertised IT jobs was just over 100,000, the index shows that it shot up to 116,000 jobs in the first quarter of the year. The figures are available to the iX editorial team.
According to Hays, its specialist index also shows the percentage change compared to the initial value from the first quarter of 2015 on a quarterly basis. The recruitment service provider has identified a particular trend in this benchmark in job vacancies for security experts: Hays recorded an increase of 115 percentage points to a rise of 644 percent compared to the 2015 reference value.
Security expertise for NIS2 and DORA:
The personnel service provider sees EU laws such as the NIS2 cybersecurity directive, which must be incorporated into German law by October, and the security regulations for the financial sector, abbreviated to DORA, as the reason for the increase. In absolute figures, however, the comparison between the first quarter of 2024 and the previous quarter is not quite as spectacular – the number of advertised jobs for security specialists rose by almost 1,000 from around 5,200 to just under 6,200.
The largest proportion of job advertisements falls into the broad category of IT developers, which ranges from application to web development. Here, the number of job offers rose from 52,146 in the previous quarter to 60,955. IT consultants also have more choice with 16,732 offers (previous quarter 14,525), admins with 7,940 (previous quarter 6,613). Overall, all the IT job categories recorded increased in comparison to the previous quarter.
Increase in demand intensifies
"An increase in demand in all relevant IT roles was already evident in the previous quarter. This trend intensified again in Q1,” said Andreas Sauer, Head of Technology at Hays. Despite the tense economic situation, demand in the IT sector is clearly prioritized in directions such as IT security. However, the job market is still a long way from the previous peak of around 119,000 jobs that Hays recorded in the first quarter of 2022.
According to Hays, the specialist index is based on a quarterly evaluation by index "Internet und Mediaforschung GmbH". It includes job advertisements from the most popular online job exchanges, daily newspapers and the business network Xing.
(axk)
