The Cost of an Unfilled IT Position

The shortage of skilled workers remains high across all industries – and continues to worsen. IT specialists are particularly scarce. This is becoming increasingly expensive for companies. The career portal Stepstone has quantified the revenue loss from an unfilled position for the first time.

The skills shortage is not a new phenomenon. For years, the gap between the number of skilled workers and open positions in the job market has been growing. Many specialists are retiring, and too few experts are following due to declining birth rates. This ongoing development is leaving clear marks, especially in the IT industry – and is causing significant costs for many companies. According to calculations by the career portal Stepstone, German companies are losing an average of €29,000 in revenue per unfilled position.

Open IT Positions Particularly Expensive for Companies

The costs for skilled workers in the technology sector are among the highest values across all industries. And that's not all: the larger the company, the more money an unfilled position in this area costs. Stepstone reports €19,269 one-time for companies with up to 50 employees. For companies with up to 250 employees, the figure rises to €37,301. If more than 250 people work at the company, costs increase to €96,228 per open position. The calculation also took into account opportunity costs – meaning costs from lost revenue.

Nearly 100,000 IT Professionals Missing

The skills shortage is now particularly severe in IT. The German Association for Information and Telecommunications (Bitkom) conducts an annual study on the skills shortage. According to this, 96,000 IT jobs were unfilled across all industries at the end of 2021. This represents an increase of about twelve percent compared to the previous year.

Bitkom President Achim Berg commented: "Digitalization is the answer to the pandemic, location competition, and the climate crisis, but there is a lack of experts to shape and drive it." 66 percent of the 851 companies surveyed also expected the shortage to increase further in the future.

How Companies Stay Competitive

The skills shortage in the IT industry cannot be solved easily or quickly. For affected companies, there are currently only two options: In the medium term, investments must be made in recruiting measures to fill open positions quickly. Vacancies are lengthy and expensive.

However, it is much faster and more sustainable to use existing resources as efficiently as possible. A sensible first step is to automate user management and thereby free up valuable IT resources. As an additional effect, HR managers also gain the necessary freedom to focus on more important work alongside IT departments.

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