A few facts about employment in the information industry
Work Service S.A. employment agency, in its “Professional migration of Poles” report notes, that about 20 per cent of Poles of working age think about leaving the country in search of work. Half of potential migrants consist of young people in the 25-34 years’ age range. 80 per cent of the surveyed claim that a better salary is a motivation for emigration, and a third of them – a higher quality of life. Destinations mentioned most often are: Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands. In what direction is demand headed in this potentially most prospective IT industry? Hicron compares the possibilities of getting employed in Poland (in specific regions) and in other European Union countries.
IT services are part of one of the most dynamically developing branches of the economy, hence – according to a common view – “IT specialist will always find a job”. That’s actually quite true; graduates of these faculties are one of the best-paid employees and it is the IT industry, in which one can clearly see a so called ‘employees’ market’, in which it is the employer who fights fiercely in order to win the best of the best – says Sylwia Wieteska, HR Specialist in Hicron.
How long are we professionally active for?
A desire to improve quality of life and for self-development are the reasons we work increasingly longer. The professional activity time-span of Poles grew from 30 (in 2003) to 32 years (2013). However, we statistically work less than the average European Union citizen: 35 years on average.
One of the nations that works the longest are the Scandinavians who scored the top three positions in the ranking of length of professional work life: Icelanders (45.6 years), Norwegians (41.9 years) and Swedes (40.9 years). The shortest work time-span characterises the Italians (only 30.3 years), Hungarians (30.8) and Croats (31) – Sylwia Wieteska points out.
We emigrate in search for work. Where to look for a job in IT?
If we decide to look at employment abroad, it is advisable to discover which territories in recent years have noted the highest demand in IT specialists. The biggest numbers of companies which employed or planned to employ new staff reside in Iceland (14 per cent). A slightly lower level (12 per cent) was noted by Eurostat in Finland, Great Britain and Luxembourg. What is interesting however is, the better the climate, the fewer jobs are found. Which is probably why in Italy and Romania, only 4 per cent of companies want to employ IT specialists.
In the entire EU, 8 per cent of companies on average indicate a demand for ICT professionals: the figure is the same in Poland. The IT industry in our country is actively developing, both thanks to local branches of foreign corporations and companies with entirely Polish assets. For instance: in 2013, Hicron employed 179 people, by the end of 2014 we were 223 strong. And by the end of this year we plan to increase the number of employees to 300. We are constantly on the lookout for new specialists and the recruitment process is in fact continuous – Sylwia Wieteska sums up.
Job posts for world-class specialists
Statistical research concerns not only standard IT job posts, but also so-called, hard-to-be-filled job posts, meaning those requiring a niche skills set or notable experience. Similarly to the entire EU, only 3 per cent of companies in Poland offer such jobs and have problems with filling vacancies.
The biggest number of such openings can be found in Luxembourg, where this figure equals 7 per cent, or in Sweden – 6 per cent. The lowest demand for such specialists is noted by Eurostat in Italy and Romania – about 1 per cent.
Hard-to-be-filled jobs in Poland can be usually found in large companies employing more than 250 employees: here, almost 13 per cent of companies are having trouble hiring. Medium-sized companies (50-249 employed) are characterised by a much lower number – somewhere around 2.5 per cent. Therefore, if we are looking for a job in Poland – it is worth browsing through the offers of the largest market players.
Relocation in Poland: where to find a job?
If we plan to relocate to within the borders of our country, we should look at the Mazovian region, which has the largest number of companies hiring or planning to hire – 8.5 per cent. Second place on the list goes to Lower Silesia (5.7 per cent), and the third place goes to Lesser Poland (4.7 percent).
The lowest demand for new job posts, as GUS notes, is in the Opolskie, Podkarpackie, Kujawsko-pomorskie and Świętokrzyskie regions – on average just 3 per cent of companies are searching for IT employees.
Industries for IT experts
The IT industry won’t become saturated for a long, long time. Interesting offers will appear both in Poland and from abroad. Some IT specialists, especially young ones who are more open to relocation, will probably leave the country; nevertheless, the huge demand for IT experts will most likely maintain the existing trend of an “employee’ market”.
