Applying new data insights to map the future of the European technology industry

As an insights analyst at LinkedIn, one of the favourite things about my job is working with one of the most powerful data sets on talent in the world and using it to inform discussions about trends and patterns in the labour market on a massive scale. 

Yesterday, partnering with venture capital firm Atomico, we provided some of these unique insights into talent trends across Europe’s tech scene. Launched to coincide with the startup conference, Slush, The State of European Tech 2016 shines the spotlight on the European tech ecosystem. 

Our analysis of data showed that the tech sector is creating jobs faster than other industries in Europe. The number of professionals employed in European tech grew by just over 2 per cent, faster than other sectors such as financial services and professional services. Ireland clocked a growth rate of 5.5 per cent, followed by Germany at 3.3 per cent and the UK at 3 per cent. What’s also notable is the growth rate in other economies such as Poland (2.7 per cent) and the Czech Republic (2.5 per cent).

However, what was also interesting to note was that while tech industries are growing, they are still competing for talent with other more traditional industries – limiting the room for complacency. Around 10 per cent of those members working in tech in 2016 were working in other industries in 2015, while just under 8 per cent of members who worked in tech in 2015 were working in other industries in 2016. Tech is most likely to compete with professional services and financial services for the talent it needs which demonstrates that while tech is an attractive industry for Europe’s talent, it needs to be aware of where competition for talent is coming from.

Europe’s tech ecosystem isn’t just attracting talent from other sectors; it is also a popular destination for talent coming from all over the world. Our data clearly shows that of those LinkedIn members working in tech who came from another country are most likely to move to the UK, especially if from non-European destinations. Over half of all non-European tech migration into European countries comes from India and the United States, highlighting Europe’s increasing attractiveness as a destination for tech workers. Crucially, over a third of these migration flows are accounted for by engineering and IT talent, underlining Europe’s strength in attracting and retaining the necessary technical talent to sustain its ecosystem.

This complements our findings about the strength of the European tech ecosystem in terms of the comparative advantage it possesses in terms of deep tech skills. While places like London and Stockholm feature highly in the list of cities with large numbers of members with Artificial Intelligence skills, Munich, Zurich and Copenhagen are also cities to watch. This pattern is replicated when looking at the hubs for virtual reality and artificial reality talent, where the prevalence of London and Berlin is confirmed but also where we see Lisbon and Madrid featuring highly. Similarly, there are many new frontiers evident in the locations of frontier hardware talent across Europe where cities like Munich, Zurich and Amsterdam are coming to the fore in terms of their expertise in this field.

Now, the key for all stakeholders in European tech is to take these insights and many others outlined in The State of European Tech 2016 and to harness the power of the information uncovered to facilitate the future progress of an exciting and dynamic tech ecosystem.

Methodology: For the purposes of this analysis, we created a pool of European LinkedIn members for analysis to enable a comparison of professionals working in the European tech industry on 1st July 2016 and those working in the industry in 1st July 2015.