No end in sight for French IT skills shortage

NEWS France has 10,000 unfilled IT positions and French software services association Syntec believes there is little hope of filling them. Francois Dufaux, president of Syntec Informatique, blamed the worsening problem on the growth of France's net economy as companies rush to go online. Dufaux also said the situation would only get worse as companies continue to introduce the 35 hour working week. The situation is not unique, and can be seen in Spain, Germany and Italy where a total of 800,000 IT staff are needed. In Germany the problem has reached such proportions that Chancellor Gerhard Schroder recently granted an extra 10,000 work permits to encourage IT staff to move to Germany from outside the European Union. French research house PAC estimates there will be a shortage of 1.1 million IT specialists in France by 2010 if the current demand for skills and birth rate of start ups continues.