Berlin - Job prospects for IT specialists continue to be bright. A survey conducted by the industry association BITKOM in Berlin found that almost one-third of the companies polled had vacant positions.

By far the most jobs were available at software publishers and IT service companies. The results are not surprising: most IT projects now include consulting, individual programming services, and training phases, BITKOM president August-Wilhelm Scheer notes. Projects of that complexity require a high number of employees.

Software publishers and IT service companies have created roughly 100,000 new jobs in Germany alone since 2000. With 518,000 workers, the majority of the 829,000 jobs are in the information technology and communication (ITC) branch.

For that reason demand for software developers is especially large, and in fact two-thirds of the surveyed ITC companies had vacant IT positions. Project managers and IT consultants are also in demand. For applications in trade, manufacturing and other sectors the primary demand is for IT administrators to ensure the smooth operation of IT systems. (dpa)