IDA members are in high demand among headhunters

Highly educated STEM professionals remain in high demand on the Danish job market - leading headhunters to search more actively than ever for candidates among IDA's members. A new survey has found that one in two members have been approached by a headhunter or other company in the past six months with an offer to change jobs. The survey was conducted among 16,864 private sector members. 

It comes as no surprise to IDA's president Laura Klitgaard that headhunters are busy sourcing specialists and highly educated individuals with insight into STEM subjects.

'Unemployment is low, and Denmark is neither able to train enough new graduates in STEM subjects nor attract enough specialists from abroad. The government, together with a majority of the parties in the Danish Parliament, has actually adopted a university reform that limits admissions to these vital education programmes in the coming years. This cocktail is causing a lot of hustle and bustle among headhunters and HR departments,' says Laura Klitgaard.

'These are good times for the individual member. But for Denmark as a knowledge society, it is bad news. If companies cannot find the right skills, it may mean that they have to say no to new orders or outsource to places in the world where the relevant skills are found. And once the companies have left, they are lost forever. We will not become a richer society as a result,' she says.

IDA's president calls on companies to do more to retain their oldest and most experienced employees to address the shortage, especially with the prospect of fewer newly qualified candidates in the future. One survey from IDA in 2022 found than 1 in 6 members went into retirement despite wanting to remain in the labour market for longer.

'Several companies can retain their senior employees with relatively small initiatives. Talk to the individual employee and make a senior agreement that suits both parties. It is paradoxical that you are chasing each other's employees with one hand, and at the same time sending seniors who can and want to continue in the labour market to retirement with the other hand,' says Laura Klitgaard.

The headhunting survey shows that headhunters are most active in sectors like utilities, IT, construction and consulting. 

IDA's salary statistics 2024 show that 21 percent of IDA's members in the private sector changed jobs in the past year – either within the same company or to another company.