IT&C has been the most dynamic sector in Romania’s economy in recent years and some have even ventured to say that Romania is Europe’s new Silicon Valley. However, the official statistics show that Romania is by no means a European leader in the IT&C sector.

The 161,000 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialists officially registered in Romania in 2015 make only 1.9% of Romania’s total workforce, according to the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat.

Romania thus had the second-lowest share of ICT specialists in the overall employment in the EU, after Greece (1.2%). In absolute terms, Romania is 12th in the EU for the number of ICT specialists, lagging behind smaller countries such as Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria.

The number of ICT specialists in Romania increased by some 36,000, from 124,800 in 2011 to 160,800 in 2015, but most EU countries also registered growth in this area.

For example, Hungary added some 50,000 ICT specialists in the same period, reaching 152,600 in 2016 (3.6% of the country’s total workforce). The number of ICT specialists also went up by some 28,000 in the Czech Republic, reaching 184,600 (3.7% of the total employment), while Poland gained almost 70,000 new ICT jobs, reaching 423,700 (2.6% of its workforce).

The total number of ICT specialists in the EU increased by 1.35 million from 2011 until 2015, reaching 7.73 million, or 3.5% of the total employment.

Germany alone added 465,000 new jobs in this sector, reaching 1.46 million (3.7% of its employment), and France created more than 310,000, reaching 950,000 (3.6% of the total employment).

The highest shares of ITC specialists in total employment were recorded in Finland - 6.5% and Sweden - 6.1%, followed by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom -5.0% each, Luxembourg - 4.6%, and Estonia 4.4%.

The Eurostat data also shows that, last year, 83.9% of the ITC specialists employed in the EU were men. The situation was similar in all EU member states, with proportions ranging from less than 75% in Bulgaria (72.3%) and Romania (72.8%) to around 90% in the Czech Republic (90.1%), Slovakia (88.6%), Hungary (88.1%), Luxembourg (87.4%) and the Netherlands (87.0%).

The statistics also show that most of Romania’s ITC specialists, namely 51.4%, were young people aged less than 35. The share was higher than the one reported at EU level – 36.4%, but lower than the figures registered in countries such as Malta (58.0%), Lithuania (55.3%), Bulgaria, (54.6%), Latvia (52.2%), and Estonia (52%).

The complete data is available here.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com