The War for Talent in Software Business - How are Finnish software companies perceiving and coping with the labor shortage?

The crosscutting need for high-skilled specialists is descriptive for the newest industrial revolution. The software industry is one of the most knowledge-intensive fields and the lack of competent labor can be harmful for the growth of the industry. Furthermore, the lack of competent workforce in the software industry will harm other industries as new digitalization projects are postponed. Currently, there are signs of severe labor shortage in Europe and one of the countries struggling with the lack of competent labor in the field of software is Finland. This paper investigates how Finnish software firms perceive the ‘War for Talent’ in the software industry and how it is perceived to affect into the companies. Based on the thematic analysis of 160 companies' responses consisting over 3,000 words, frequent themes related to reasons, consequences and proposed solutions of the labor shortage are identified. This study contributes to the discussion of the ICT labor shortage by revealing more nuances of its perceived effects as well as discussing possible solutions as perceived by the surveyed companies.