LABOUR: Tech-Trained Workforce Scarce in New European Economy

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Dec 15 2000 (IPS) - The information and communications technology sector (ICT) in Western Europe faces a shortage of qualified workers, which endangers the potential for expansion of this strategic industry, warns the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The deficit of adequately trained personnel reached a half million in 1998, but it is expected to more than triple by 2002, topping 1.6 million because ICT is growing at more than 8.0 percent annually, says the ILO.

However, the new jobs would not be able to be covered completely by the 15 million unemployed in Europe today because most of the individuals lack the necessary professional training.

As is also occurring in the United States, European nations are trying to meet the demand by easing immigration laws for ICT professionals coming from Asia – especially India – and Eastern Europe.

The ICT industry encompasses manufacturing telecommunications equipment, computers, semiconductors and other electronic equipment, as well as providing telecommunications, computer and software services, according to the ILO report presented at its Sixth European Regional Meeting this week in Geneva.

The study advises providing professional training to offset the so-called “skills gap” that threatens to become “a critical bottleneck” for the ICT sector’s growth.

The European Union (EU) has expressed concern about the sharp regional disparities in employment and about the service sector’s lack of development, particularly in telecommunications and the Internet.

There is an increasingly urgent need to meet the demand for qualified workers, especially in information technology, reports the 15-nation bloc.

The ILO emphasises that these problems are even more critical in Central and Eastern Europe, indicating that “a likely scenario of widening gaps accompanying the gains from ICT diffusion.

Europe is already lagging behind the United States in “connectivity,” as Internet use is known.

In 1999, there were 50 million Internet users in Europe, one- third the US total. Nevertheless, Internet use is growing faster in the EU than in any other region of the world.

The ILO study warns that if the shortage of training persists, companies will be more likely to relocate, moving to labour markets “where systems analysts, programmers and technicians are abundant, further widening the digital divide between the technologically rich and poor regions in Europe.”

ILO Director-General Juan Somavía pointed out that “enterprises across the continent are facing the challenge. But this is not an economy in which anyone can afford to sit on their laurels.”

Somavía stated that the ILO objective of decent work must be a priority in the so-called “knowledge economy.”

The principle of decent work “captures the aspirations of people to have productive work in which their rights are respected, with security and protection, and with the ability to participate in the decisions which affect them,” said the ILO chief.

The ILO holds regional meetings every four years to evaluate the organisation’s activities in each area and to design strategies for improving the economic, social and labour conditions of its member countries.

The Geneva meeting, concluded Friday, involved union, employer and government delegates from 50 countries of Europe and central Asia – as well as Yugoslavia, which was admitted to the ILO in late November.