Despite the fear of a global economic recession, not to mention geopolitical tensions, HR experts hope for a consolidation of the recovery observed in 2022 after the decline following the health crisis. Among the sectors that should recruit the most is IT. Demand is high for sharp profiles, and salaries are rising to attract and keep these talents.
Sustained demand for IT profiles in 2023
Although still dynamic at the start of 2023, the job market in France is tending towards stabilization. According to a study carried out by the recruitment group Robert Half, “75% of managers have confidence in the future and 33% of them even plan to open permanent positions”. Among the functions concerned by these hires, information technology professionals remain in high demand.
Apec confirms, saying that “the forecast for hiring IT executives for this year is higher than that of other sectors, and will exceed their level of 2019”. Candidates remain in a position of strength in the context of the current talent shortage and 90% of those interviewed by Robert Walters France are confident about job opportunities.
The specialties most sought after by recruiters in 2023 are data scientists, chief information security officers and IT architects. They reflect the changing priorities of companies and administrations: security against attacks, cloud transformation projects.
An increase in expected remuneration for tech professionals
Robert Half’s 2023 Salary Guide shows an upward trend in salaries. In Paris, a junior systems and network technician earns an average of €36,750, compared to €147,000 for an experienced CIO. It should be noted, however, that the salaries offered in the capital are about 5% higher than in the rest of the territory.
Robert Walters France reveals that “85% of French companies will raise the salaries of tech experts by 7% on average in 2023 in order to retain their talents”. The profiles best positioned to negotiate more comfortable salaries, according to the Silkhom barometer are:
- SAP developers,
- les responsables ERP (domain manager, ERP project manager),
- JavaScript back-end developers and QA engineers.
Robert Walters France adds to the list professionals with between 10 and 15 years of experience in the fields of:
- la data (BI/Data project manager, data scientist, lead data scientist),
- cybersecurity,
- infrastructure engineers,
- mais aussi les managers (CTO, chief digital officer, chief information/security officer, IT project manager).
In addition to the financial question, candidates attach great importance to the values and culture of the company. Autonomy and flexibility are also essential criteria, with the possibility of adopting a hybrid organization.
International, a huge breeding ground little exploited by French companies
Recruitment in the IT and digital professions remains extremely tense. To find the skills they need, French digital companies must recruit abroad. However, for the time being, “only 11% of them have already tried the experience”, indicates a study by Remote, the mobility management platform.
Their motivation: to expand their teams or prepare to set up in a new market. In this respect, France lags significantly behind neighboring countries (40% of IT specialists recruited internationally for the Dutch, 25% for the British and 23% for the Germans) and the United States ( 20%).
The obstacles mentioned are multiple, but most cite “the lack of knowledge of the legislation for hiring, pay, social benefits, as well as cultural problems, in particular the language barrier”.
For those who look abroad, the preferred destinations are historic breeding grounds such as Berlin, London, New York, or San Francisco. However, other ecosystems are booming: Helsinki (Iceland), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Guadalajara (Mexico).
As an alternative to recruiting full-time employees internally, more and more companies are turning to the portage salarial. This form of employment is very popular with the self-employed, who retain their autonomy while benefiting from full social protection. For business customers too, this solution is advantageous in more ways than one.
It is synonymous with flexibility and cost control, because they call on external collaborators for a specific need and for a predefined period. Finally, the umbrella company, such as ABC Portage, takes care of all the administrative formalities, which relieves their own HR teams, reduces the time and expense of recruiting and managing staff.
For recruitment experts, “the opportunities on a global scale are immense, and the generalization of remote work facilitates potential collaboration”. It is up to companies to overcome the obstacles in order to take advantage of them.