Skills Survey 2002: The gap year?

It's tempting to ask why silicon.com and its sister publications on the continent run an annual skills survey. Isn't there always a skills shortage? Well, yes - and no.

This year, we polled over 4,500 silicon.com readers, over 2,000 from silicon.de and 1,750 from silicon.fr - over 8,000 across Europe in fact.

The scene that emerges this year is of IT departments spread thin. Budgets have been cut in the midst of a downturn, jobs have been cut. Times ain't great. At the same time, the pressure to complete those projects that may just mean more business efficiency or more revenue is intense.

But guess what - the pool of IT pros now 'between jobs' doesn't hold the skills needed. (And yes, web-related environments such as J2EE and XML again top wish lists.)

In past years there weren't enough IT pros out there. It was called a skills shortage or skills crisis.

This year, far fewer IT departments have positions they cannot fill - the figure stands at 17 per cent, for 2001 it was 39 per cent, and just two years ago it was as much as 48 per cent - yet they still say there is a skills crisis.

The way the experts interpret this is to speak of a skills 'gap' - there are plenty of IT pros on the market but they just don't have the right skills. There isn't a shortage of skilled professionals - but there is a shortage of professionals with skills for some of the most important projects.

We could go on. But let us mention here that silicon.com's Skills Survey Hot Topic (why not bookmark http://www.silicon.com/ss2002 ) will pull together all the angles on the most interesting results.

From the perennial question of is there still an IT skills shortage? (http://www.silicon.com/a51693 ) to why laid off IT pros can't walk into new jobs (http://www.silicon.com/a51895 ) to why UK IT workers earn more than their peers in Germany and France (http://www.silicon.com/a51896 ) you'll only have to come here.

And we'll be publishing the results of the UK survey soon.