Germany‘s information and communication technology (ICT) labour market is facing a combination of short-term economic pressures and long-term structural change, a new study by Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) has found.
As it noted, the recent economic slowdown in Germany has reduced hiring rates across the ICT sector, while advances in technology, particularly AI, is increasing demand for higher-level skills.
‘Conflicting trends’
“The labour market in information and communication technology is experiencing conflicting trends,” commented Andrea Nahles, BA chair. “While the current economic downturn is slowing down hiring in the short term, the industry-specific structural changes driven by advancing digitalisation, automation, and the use of new AI technologies are simultaneously raising the skill requirements for these professions.
“For all skilled workers in this sector, continuous professional development is key to remaining employed in this changing environment.”
In 2025, some 13,000 ICT job vacancies were registered with BA, down 22% compared with the previous year. The occupation-specific unemployment rate also increased from 3.7% to 4.5%, reflecting fewer new ICT start-ups and a decline in new digital projects across businesses.
In the long-term, however, employment trends remain positive. Around 1.15 million people were employed in ICT occupations subject to social security contributions in 2025, representing a 2% increase on the previous year.
Demand shift
BA said demand continues to shift towards highly qualified professionals, particularly specialists and experts able to work with emerging technologies and AI.
Highly qualified experts remain in particularly strong demand, it noted, and are largely insulated from unemployment, with an unemployment rate of just 3.5%. More than 40% of the 39,000 new ICT job advertisements published during the year targeted expert-level candidates, while around one-third sought specialist-level workers.
‘The influence of new technologies and AI, in particular, is fundamentally changing the requirements’, BA noted.
International recruitment
To meet the long-term demand for skilled workers, companies are also relying on international recruitment, which has ‘contributed significantly to employment growth in recent years’, it added.
The number of foreign ICT professionals employed in Germany has more than tripled since 2015, reaching 171,000 in 2025. Among workers from outside the European Union, Indian nationals form the largest group, with around 31,000 employed in ICT roles. Read more here.
