Regional S&T workforce in plentiful supply, finds report
Highly educated and skilled science and technology workers are in plentiful supply in Europe's capital cities and regions, according to the latest figures from the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat). The Eurostat report 'Highly educated persons in science and technology occupations' looks at regional data for the EU Member States, as well as Iceland and Norway, on the number of people within the science and technology (S&T) labour force, who have both completed a university degree and are working in a highly-skilled job. Taking the lead is Oslo in Norway, where these highly-skilled S&T workers account for 33% of the city's labour force. Following close behind are Stockholm in Sweden, Belgium's Brabant Wallon region, Inner London and the Dutch region of Utrecht, where this core group of S&T workers account for between 27% and 28% of the overall workforce. Previous statistics show that more women than men work in the science and technology sectors in the majority of EU Member States. This latest report reveals the same trend is visible at regional level. Women accounted for no less than 60% of the highest-skilled group in the S&T labour force in 6 of the 25 regions for which data are available. Estonia's regions reported that 72% of their core S&T workers are women. At the other end of the scale, high-educated and skilled S&T women were least represented in Turkey, accounting for around 40% or less in all the country's regions. The report also details disparities within countries. For example, in three German states, namely Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia, the proportion of female skilled S&T workers was above 55%. At the same time, in eight German states, shares of female workers fell below 45%. The report also takes stock of the number of young highly experienced S&T workers, helping to shed light on any possible future shortages in this labour force in the EU. It finds that the proportion of workers aged between 25 and 34 is not evenly distributed. Malta with 47.1% and Poland with 44.3% had the highest national shares, while Germany had the lowest, with around 22% of young people employed in S&T. Large disparities were also found within countries, especially in the UK. There young S&T professionals represented 41.5% of the labour force in London, while outside the capital in the East Midlands, they only accounted for 26%. Finally, the report ranks the 25 regions by the number of skilled S&T workers working in a specific economic sector. Looking first at all sectors, Belgium's capital Brussels leads the way with 29.1%, followed by Berlin in Germany and French capital region Île de France both with shares of 28.3%. In fact, the top eight regions were all capital regions. In the public administration, a sector known for employing S&T workers, Hamburg in Germany comes out on top with 43.6% of employees coming from the S&T workforce. Education is also a big employer of skilled S&T personnel. Here, the Greek regions of Nisia Aigaiou, Kriti and Voreia Ellada are in the lead with shares of employed S&T workers exceeding 82%. Finally, the proportion of S&T employees in high-tech sectors was highest in Île de France (54%) and the Spanish Comunidad de Madrid (49%). The high-tech sectors include 'high-tech manufacturing' of computers as well as 'knowledge-intensive high-technology services' such as research and development. According to Eurostat, taking stock of human resources in science and technology (HRST) can be used as an indicator of the development of the knowledge-based economy in the EU.