A concise, data-driven summary based on the European Transparent IT Job Market Report 2025 (covering 23,000+ job listings and a surveyed community of 75,000+ IT professionals).

Summary: Europe’s IT labour market in 2025 is data-rich, AI-augmented, and increasingly candidate-selective. Organisations that adapt their hiring models, introduce transparent salary structures, and adopt AI responsibly will gain a substantial competitive advantage.

Metric	Description
23,000+	Job listings analysed
75,000+	Community participants
76%	Juniors say entry roles require too much experience
58%	Juniors find first job in under 3 months
90%	Employees using AI tools in workflows
39%	Feel increased pressure due to AI expectations

---

1. Junior Talent — Barriers & Opportunities

Juniors face high entry barriers: 76% call experience requirements excessive. Yet 58% secure a role in under three months. While 85% hold a university degree, 42% report that formal education is helpful but not essential — strengthening the case for skills-based hiring.

Recommendation: Reduce artificial experience thresholds, adopt competency-based assessments, and build structured early-career pipelines.

---

2. AI Adoption — Productivity Gains with Human Implications

AI usage is mainstream. Around 90% of professionals use AI to some extent, and 53% report productivity increases between 10–50%; another 27% report increases of up to 200%. Most (79%) do not expect AI to replace their roles within five years.

Yet 39% feel increased pressure to perform, indicating that AI must be integrated with employee well-being in mind.

---

3. Recruitment Dynamics — Speed, Transparency & Candidate Experience

Candidate preferences are clearer than ever: salary (34%), remote work (33%), and interesting projects (28%) drive job decisions. 67% prefer two interview stages, and almost half report being ghosted — a significant employer-brand risk.

• Publish salary ranges to reduce drop-offs.
• Limit interviews to 1–2 stages where possible.
• Improve recruiter–hiring-manager communication loops.

---

4. European Compensation Snapshot

Below is a summary of country-level salary benchmarks from the report (median/average and top-10% values):

Country	Average/Median	Top 10%	Key Insight
Switzerland 🇨🇭	≈ €115,800 avg / €105k median	≈ €139,700	Highest-paying market in Europe
United Kingdom 🇬🇧	≈ €74,700 avg / €60k median	≈ €115,000	Strong demand in London, Birmingham
Poland 🇵🇱	≈ €63,000 avg	≈ €85,000	Rapidly converging with Western Europe
Germany 🇩🇪	≈ €62,400 avg / €60k median	≈ €80,000	Stable; strong demand in ML & Security
Netherlands	≈ €55,700 avg	≈ €74,000	Premiums for Java, Security, Mobile roles
Romania 🇷🇴	≈ €33,200 avg	≈ €58,900	Competitive top-end roles (AI/ML)

---

5. Retention & Motivators

Tenure trends remain strong — many employees remain 3–5+ years with their employer. The main motivators for job change:

1. 1. Salary (34%)
2. 2. Management quality (33%)
3. 3. Remote flexibility (22%)

---

Authors & Contributing Companies (Full Citations)

The insights in this article are based entirely on the:

European Transparent IT Job Market Report 2025, created by the Research & Communications Team at:

• SwissDevJobs.ch
• GermanTechJobs.de
• DevITjobs.uk
• DevJob.ro
• DevITjobs.nl
• DevITjobs.fr
• SOLID.Jobs

We want to thank each one for their valuable insight into the researched published in this article.

Expert Contributors Quoted in the Report

• Nicole Andres, Senior Specialist Recruiting, TARGOBANK AG
• Nadine Mekler, Principal Talent Acquisition Specialist, Cinemo GmbH
• Anna Janukowicz, Global Talent Acquisition Lead, Nortal
• Richard Yates, EMEA Head of Talent Acquisition, Unisys
• Sarah Köhl, Head of Technology, HAYS
• Łukasz Drynkowski, Growth Engineer, SOLID.Jobs