The European Digital Workforce

In today’s rapidly evolving global job market, digital professionals have become the backbone of industries across Europe. We will delve into several key insights to gain a comprehensive understanding of the European digital workforce. These insights encompass market tension, digital salaries, technology-specific trends, and more.

This is an article focused on 2022 since once the year its finished, we collect the complete data.

Market Tension: A Balancing Act

Market tension, as a measure of the relationship between supply and demand, reveals intriguing dynamics across European cities. It quantifies the number of professionals available for each job offer, shedding light on the competitive landscape.

A lower number indicates higher demand for digital professionals relative to the available job opportunities, while a higher number suggests a more favorable market for recruiters.

At the forefront of this tension is London, boasting a market tension of 2.62 professionals per job offer. Following closely are Bucharest (2.98) and Vienna (3.38).

In contrast, Helsinki, with 31.63 professionals per job offer, leads the pack in abundance, closely followed by Zagreb (21.5) and Paris (17.18). This could be called the least stressed cities with the highest abundance of professionals per job offer.

Digital Salaries: Striving for Excellence

Zurich leads the European ranking with an impressive €148,327, followed by Copenhagen (€89,127), London (€86,267), Berlin (€77,953), and Stockholm (€75,300). Conversely, cities like Bucharest (€24,047), Zagreb (€34,160), and Prague (€35,488) offer comparatively lower salaries. The European city average is €63,059.

When talking salaries, Zurich stands out prominently, boasting salaries ranging from €97,000 to €159,000, depending on the technology utilized. Moreover, Zurich maintains its dominance in the realm of emerging technologies, particularly in computer vision and blockchain, where workers command higher salaries.

In general, computer vision salaries are higher than other sectors such as AI, IOT, Blockchain and 3D Printing.

Some cities with ranges of salaries around the average, so to say, more or less between 55k€ and 70k€ are Paris and Helsinki (slightly above the average) and Munich and Milan (slightly below).

Normalized Salaries: A Fair European Comparison

Considering normalized salaries in relation to the cost of living is crucial as it provides a more accurate depiction of an individual’s purchasing power and overall quality of life, enabling fairer cross-city or cross-country job market comparisons. Failing to account for cost of living variations can lead to misconceptions about the true economic value of a salary, potentially affecting personal financial well-being and career decisions. In this case, salaries are being normalized by cost of living plus rent.

For example, even if Spanish salaries are usually way below the European average, Barcelona’s normalized average salary aligns with cities like Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin.

London claims the highest normalized salary in Europe, followed by Zurich and Berlin. The average normalized salary for European cities under study is €52,752, with 45% falling within the range of €45,000 to €55,000 annually. Prague (€44,063), Bucharest (€41,336), and Oslo (€36,415) rank lower in terms of normalized salaries.

Oslo could be the opposite example of Barcelona. In this case it is a city with salaries usually around the average but, when normalized, it goes to the top 3 lowest salaries.

Remote offers the European Digital Workforce

Remote job offers have diminished since 2021. The European average has gone down 1.44 points (from 13.15% to 11.71%). In fact, the only city which has seen an increase in its remote offers is London (from 15.07% to 16.41%). The top 3 European cities with more remote offers are Helsinki (38.98%), Tallin (38.17%) and Munich (28.79%). And the three with less remote offers are Oslo (1.93%), Copenhagen (4.60%) and Rome (4.62%).

Most remote offers are for positions in core information technology such as app developers or specialists in cybersecurity, IA, IOT or blockchain.

The Gender Gap in Digital Europe 2022

It is still impressive the predominant gender gap that there exists in the digital sector. The average rate of feminine presence in digital teams is 27.79%. Out of the studied cities, the three best positioned are Milan (32.77%), Madrid (30.19%) and Stockholm (29.85%).

Unfortunately, most cities in 2023 had less feminine presence than in 2021. As for remote offers, London is the only city improving its results in 2022, growing 2.38 points (from 27.12% to 29.50%).

These results underscore the urgency of promoting IT opportunities for women. Addressing this gender gap not only fosters diversity and inclusion but also harnesses the untapped potential of a significant talent pool, driving innovation and competitiveness in the digital sector.

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