A global view of what fixes information technology skills shortage: Panel data analyses of countries’ human and technology resources

Abstract

This paper aims to provide evidence of what fixes the information technology skills shortage. The focus is on countries' workforce development factors, i.e., human and technology. The research model was tested using secondary data from multiple sources. An ordinary least square with panel corrected standard errors was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that organizations' staff training and gender parity among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates relate negatively to IT talent shortage; this is consistent in both models the authors tested. This study contributes to the IT workforce literature by being the first study that empirically examines the relationships between IT skills shortage and the relevant workforce development factors. Besides, objective measures of IT skills shortage were used, thus overcoming issues that might arise from using the subjective ones, such as counting the number of IT job openings based on predetermined occupation codes. For policymakers wanting to fix the IT skills shortage, the results revealed factors that can help fix the issue in the short term. Future research could examine other factors, such as policy or gender parity in IT careers if appropriate data is available.