Czechia lacks around 14,000 IT specialists

The Czech Republic is currently lacking approximately 14,000 IT professionals, suggests a new survey, conducted by Coding Bootcamp Prague and the recruiting platform Techloop.

In total, the IT sector now employs over 316,000 people and about 79 percent of companies have problems finding suitable candidates when looking for new specialists.

According to the survey, the number of responses to IT advertisements is often many times lower than in other industries. It also points out that representation of women in this sector is still minimal.

"There are several reasons why the number of job offers is many times higher than the interest. First of all, it is the low number of university graduates and the growing demand caused by digitalization.

“Another reason why there is such low demand in this sector could be the relatively difficult retraining for IT positions," says Andrew Elliott, co-founder of the recruiting platform Techloop.

The salaries in individual IT positions vary quite widely based on the length of overall experience, the type of collaboration, or the number of programming languages a candidate knows.

According to the survey, the average salary of an IT employee is CZK 68,000. Junior positions usually stand around CZK 40,000, while senior positions reach an average of CZK 80,000.

The data provided by Techloop also shows that a freelancer can earn up to CZK 40,000 crowns a month more than if they were employed. This is one of the main reasons why some people prefer this type of cooperation. An average remuneration for freelancers ranges from CZK 450 to CZK 800 per hour.

At the moment, the largest percentage of IT specialists is in Prague, and Brno, followed, with a significant gap, by Ostrava. Most professionals are located in a close proximity to the country’s major technology companies.