20 March 2006

The outlook for jobs in the European technology sector are very positive with almost 60 % of firms expecting to increase recruitment over the next 12 months according to the annual IT confidence survey by Eurocom Worldwide, the global PR network.

The survey has been responded by almost 300 CEO, director or VP level executives in 20 European countries.

58% of firms surveyed expect to increase jobs with only 8% expecting to decrease headcount. The Eurocom survey finds that one in three firms is now finding it more difficult to recruit than last year. The skills most in demand are software engineers followed by project management specialists and international sales people.

The Eurocom study predicts a continuing growth of technology manufacturing jobs in low labour cost centres, especially China. The vast majority of respondents (76 %) agreed with the comment that Europe and the US are rapidly losing their lead as technology manufacturing centres because of the rise of low cost locations such as China and India. Just 11 % of respondents disagreed with this statement.