Tech skills gap: How difficult is it to hire IT talent?

For years, IT leaders have complained about difficulties in recruiting skilled technology professionals. While this has been a problem for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges.

When the “Work from Home Revolution” made hybrid work the new normal, skilled workers could more easily switch companies. Greater workforce mobility led to the “Great Resignation,” where many skilled employees quit their jobs for the greener pastures of better career opportunities or workplace conditions.

As a result, many employers reported difficulties in hiring and retaining top talent. But the narrative on IT hiring may be shifting, as new data suggests the situation has improved.

Is it becoming easier to hire IT talent?

The annual Spiceworks State of IT Report has tracked sentiment on the tech labor market over time by asking IT professionals if they believe it’s currently difficult or easy to hire skilled tech workers.

In the 2026 edition of the State of IT, 51% of IT professionals said it’s either somewhat or very difficult to hire skilled IT talent, compared to only 22% who believe it’s somewhat or very easy.

In other words, IT pros were 2.3x as likely to say it’s difficult to hire skilled talent vs. easy in 2025. While these findings suggest that hiring tech talent remains somewhat challenging, historical data provides a slightly different perspective by revealing how sentiment has evolved over time.

When we look at the net difficulty to hire skilled IT talent (% of those who say it was difficult – % who say it was easy) over time, a new trend emerges. In 2025, IT professionals collectively agreed that it was easier to hire skilled IT talent compared to 2023.

Demographic data on the IT skills gap

It’s essential to recognize that IT professionals and the companies that employ them are not a homogeneous group, and different demographic groups often hold varying perspectives on the same IT issues. Below are interesting outliers on the question of whether it was easy or difficult to hire skilled IT labor in 2025.

• By industry: Respondents working in the government and education sectors were most likely to believe it’s difficult to hire skilled IT talent
• By company size: Respondents in enterprises (1000+ employees) and mid-size businesses (101-999 employees) were significantly more likely to say it’s easy to hire skilled talent than respondents in the smallest companies (1-99 employees).
• Money talks: Directionally, respondents in organizations planning to increase 2026 IT budgets (of which labor costs are a component) are more likely to believe it’s easy to hire IT talent than those in companies planning to decrease IT budgets.

Reasons why IT hiring might be getting easier

The disruption to labor markets caused by the normalization of remote work has calmed, and organizations are no longer rushing to hire. With the low-interest-rate-fueled growth of the early 2020s tempering, companies are hiring more deliberately.

Additionally, with the rise of AI and the uncertainty it has created around the future of work, some employers may be more reluctant to hire, especially for junior roles responsible for tasks that might be automated.

Also, the number of students earning degrees in computer and information sciences has doubled over the past decade, and U.S. government projections anticipate declining employment for some IT positions over the next 10 years. This new reality is expected to provide employers with a wider range of candidates to choose from, particularly for entry-level positions.

The persistence of the IT skills gap

The data paints a picture of a market in transition. While respondents believe it’s easier to hire IT talent now than it was two years ago, those same respondents still believe it’s more difficult to hire IT workers than it is easy, by a margin of more than two to one.

While there is less scarcity in the number of job seekers for a given open position, perhaps there’s still difficulty in finding candidates with the right skill sets.

Going forward, with ever-rising cybersecurity concerns and the increasing adoption of AI in the workplace, what’s expected from IT professionals will also likely shift over time. Only time will tell. We will continue to monitor the status of the IT skills gap in future editions of the State of IT report.