Job market: IT sector particularly attractive for career changers

The IT sector is particularly attractive for career changers. At the same time, people who already work in IT tend to be more loyal than others. This is according to the Stepstone Group's Hiring Trends Index. According to the index, the number of job advertisements for career changers on the online portal Stepstone.de has more than quadrupled across all sectors between 2019 and 2023 (329%). In the first half of the current year, there were already more than twice as many advertisements as in the whole of 2019. According to the portal, however, it is not only companies – that are showing an increasing interest in employees from outside their field, partly due to the shortage of skilled workers –. Employees are also thinking outside the box: the term "career changer" is one of the top search terms on the job portal.

"The job market is becoming more flexible, job profiles are changing faster and faster and demographic change will massively intensify the change in the workforce in the near future," says Tobias Zimmermann, labor market expert at The Stepstone Group. "For companies that are creative and flexible, career changers can be a real ace."

Filling vacancies is a major challenge for many HR managers

According to the analysis, this is also related to the challenge of finding suitable candidates for positions: 60 percent of HR managers see this as a "major challenge". This is also because times have changed on the job market: The shortage of skilled workers is reversing the roles of employees and employers. It is also no longer standard for employees to stay in one job or with one company for the rest of their lives. "Today, people can have several careers in their working life," says Zimmermann. Lateral entry will become the norm in the future. "The curiosity and openness to keep learning and trying out new things – is exactly what we need in times of unemployment."

The possibility has apparently also become firmly entrenched in the minds of IT employees: 71% think about a new challenge at least once a month. Across occupational groups, the figure is slightly higher at 73%. However, there is a clear difference in the desire for a change of sector: 16% of IT employees want to change sector when they start a new job. A look at all occupational groups (29%) shows that IT professionals are much more loyal to their industry than the average. "This is typical for highly specialized professions in which people pursue fulfilling and well-paid careers and naturally like to stay there," explains Zimmermann.

Willingness to change jobs depends on working conditions

However, if the conditions are right, slightly more people are willing to change jobs: if the job offer is right, 88% of IT employees would also switch to another sector – four percentage points more than across all occupational groups.

Those who are not satisfied in their current job could also look for a new position within the company. Meanwhile, 18% of IT employers encourage internal transfers to retain skilled workers (16% across all sectors). At 24%, the IT sector is also slightly above average (20%) when it comes to the targeted promotion of employees with further training and qualifications for an internal transfer.

The generally good conditions in the IT sector are also attracting interest from career changers from other sectors, says Zimmermann: "21% of people who can imagine changing sectors think that IT offers attractive jobs and employers." This puts IT in the top 3 in a sector comparison.

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