The boom in the digital sector: a 6.3% growth rate forecast for 2023, but skills remain a major challenge

Forecasts confirm the sector's good health

For the sector as a whole, Numeum re-evaluates its initial growth forecast at +6.3% for the year 2023. On a European scale, France ranks 3rd behind Spain (+6.9%) and the UK (+6.8%) but ahead of Germany (+6%) and the Netherlands (+5.2%)

All business lines benefit from higher sales forecasts:

• Estimated growth for Cloud Publishers and Platforms in 2023: +9.4%
• Estimated growth for Digital Services Companies (DSCs) in 2023: +4.2%.
• Estimated growth 2022 for Technology Consulting activities in 2023 (ICT): +5.9%

In 2023, the size of the digital market is thus estimated at 65 billion euros: 36.5% of the market for software publishers and cloud platforms with 23.7 billion euros in sales, 51.5% of the market for ESNs with 33.5 billion euros and finally 12% for Technology Consulting activities with 7.8 billion euros.

Growth in the digital sector is largely driven by the cloud (+21.2%) and its implementation in many companies. Growth is also supported by its classic levers: Big data, IoT services, security and digital transformation.

According to a survey of 100 CIOs conducted for Numeum by the PAC research institute, more than half of them (51%) declare an IT budget increase for 2023, slightly down on forecasts (55%).

For corporate customers of digital players, the main IT objectives are, in order of priority: information system security (very important for 64%), improving the customer experience (58%) and data analysis (51%). There has also been a sharp increase in the importance attached by CIOs to teleworking (tools put in place), transformation to the cloud and optimizing the company's internal processes.

Finally, digital responsibility has more than ever become an essential criterion for CIOs: 58% of them have already implemented actions and 11% plan to do so this year. At the same time, 87% plan to intensify these actions in 2023.

Digital employment: a 2022 of record net creation with a multitude of unfilled vacancies

Proof of its dynamism, the digital sector is creating jobs for the 13th year running: 47,000 jobs were created in 2022. Motherbase's barometer of start-up employment in France observes that French Tech has created more than 31,300 jobs in total over the period May 2022 - May 2023.

The number of salaried employees in the digital sector now stands at over 661,000.

Yet, according to the latest figures from Institut Montaigne, 85,000 job vacancies in the "core" digital professions are today unfilled. While this talent shortage is nothing new, it is intensifying at a time when digital transformation is on every company's agenda. Skills in data, security, development and the cloud are the most sought-after.

Difficulties in attracting specific profiles and heightened demands from candidates are forcing companies to retain their talent by drawing on several levers: new ways of working such as remote working, training, career development, incentive plans or even retraining. An agility that is bearing fruit: in recent years, tech companies have dominated rankings linked to well-being at work (e.g. Great Place to Work)

At the same time, 59% of CIOs are tending to re-internalize certain skills: security, cloud and IT production in particular. The lack of resources at service providers, the criticality of the subject and the loss of in-house skills are the top three reasons cited. In this under-pressured job market, 86% of them are even more likely to recruit talent from their digital service providers (ESN, ICT...) than before.

The rise of responsible digital

Spearheading the mandate of Véronique Torner, Numeum's new president since June, responsible digital is a lever of choice for reconciling environmental and digital transitions.

According to the survey conducted by PAC for Numeum, 58% of digital companies have already implemented specific actions in favor of responsible digital, around 3 axes: environmental impact, inclusion and digital trust. 77% of them also plan to intensify their actions in 2023. At the same time, 74% of digital companies respond to at least one call for tenders with CSR criteria.

Information systems directors are getting to grips with the environmental issues linked to their own business: 37% are integrating CSR/decarbonation/sustainable development criteria into their IT objectives.

The 5 main growth levers to continue boosting French digital

In an uncertain national and international economic context, 38% of ESNs and ICTs don't foresee any impact on their business. On the other hand, 69% think the impact will be greater this year than in 2022.

As established in the previous half-year, 5 strong trends continue to greatly boost the digital sector:

• The Cloud C&SI - Consulting and systems integration (a market worth 18.6 billion euros with +21.2% growth forecast in 2023): verticalized clouds, globalized collaboration, the generalization of container approaches, modernization and apps/infra transformation...
• Digital transformation (an 8 billion euro market with +6.4% growth forecast in 2023): customer experience, e-commerce, dematerialization, digitization of processes...
• IoT (a 7 billion euro market with +19.6% growth forecast in 2023): the development of new solutions with 5G and edge computing...
• Security (a 3.7 billion euro market with +11.6% growth forecast in 2023): growth in investments and outsourcing to counter the upsurge in risks, attacks...
• Big Data (a market worth 2.8 billion euros with +21% growth forecast in 2023): the collection and use of data to evolve business models, develop new services, optimize operations...

Study methodology

Numeum - PAC economic survey based on market figures derived from PAC's modeling for Numeum and indicators derived from the responses of nearly 200 companies to an online survey of Digital companies.