Switzerland’s IT sector could be short of no less than 40,000 specialists by 2026, according to a study published on Thursday. ICT-Formation Professionnelle attributed the shortage to growing demand due to digitalisation as well as the departure of many retired employees.

Since 2010, the sector's workforce has jumped by 29% to 199,200. And the study issued by the national IT professional association anticipates a growth in the number of workers to 236,200 by 2026.

For specialists, however, total demand peaks at 88,500 and can only be partially covered by the expected entry of new graduates into the labour market (31,500 workers) and by immigration (16,700).

It is therefore necessary to train nearly 40,000 additional specialists.   

This is particularly the case because the information technology sector will experience certain demographic changes in the coming years, with some 21,700 workers due to retire between 2017 and 2026.

The high demand for specialists is stimulated by the rapid digitalisation of business and administration. As a result, there is growing demand for specialists in programming, consulting, operations and cloud services. While all professions are in demand, application developers and systems engineers are particularly popular with employers.