Fact of the Week: Wages in ICT Services Have Grown Faster Than Wages Within the Total Business Sector in Europe

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2024 (Volume 2) (Paris: OECD, 2024), 74-75.

Commentary: From 2013 to 2022, wages in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector outpaced total average wages in Europe, according to the annual OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2024. Of the 28 countries with data available, two-thirds saw ICT sector wages grow faster annually than in the rest of the economy. In the EU-27 countries, annual wages increased by 0.24 percent in ICT services compared to 0.20 percent across the rest of the economy. This wage increase can be explained primarily by an increase in ICT demand and, perhaps, a shortage of skills. However, increasing wages alone is not proof of a skill shortage. The Digital Economy Outlook 2024 also shows that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are not investing enough in ICT skills compared to larger firms. Only about 14 percent of SMEs employed ICT specialists in 2020, while large enterprises employed ICT workers at a five-times greater rate (76 percent). The faster-growing wages in ICT jobs further reflect how ICTs are a core driver for economic value creation for all modern businesses, whether they're in ICT industries or not. Digital applications and technologies produce tremendous economic value for enterprises; it's no surprise that wages in the jobs producing that value are rising at an accelerated rate.