The bank’s forecasts point to growth of 4.5% and 2.5% for 2023 and 2024, respectively. This is lower than the 7% and 5.5% growth that the sector showed in 2021 and 2022, when demand of cloud solutions, for example, has taken off. But the growth is still significantly stronger than that of the Dutch economy as a whole.
ING points out, among other things, that many companies plan to spend more on IT services and cloud infrastructure this year. But there are also delay factors. In addition to the slightly slower Dutch economy, this also concerns the still pressing labor shortage and rising wages. IT companies have long struggled to find enough good workers. This holds back their growth, according to ING.
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Developers
According to the researchers, the number of vacancies in the sector increased slightly in the first quarter. There is a shortage of developers in particular. ING says various IT companies are now discussing whether they can solve some of this deficiency in the future with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). That could offer opportunities, but it doesn’t appear to be a short-term solution, according to ING. “There is still a lot of uncertainty about the reliability and security of AI applications. For example, where is the liability if something goes wrong.”