German IT skills shortage seen worst since 2001

FRANKFURT, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Two-thirds of German high-tech companies say their business operations are being hampered by a lack of IT experts, the worst perceived skills shortage in six years, according to a survey by industry association Bitkom.

In a statement published on Wednesday, Bitkom said the 64 percent of firms saying they were affected was the highest score since it began its survey of business confidence in the sector in 2001.

"The themes of education and immigration will accompany us in 2008," Bitkom President August-Wilhelm Scheer said.

Bitkom added it had received positive signals for an adjustment of Germany's immigration rules from an IT summit hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this month.

Merkel said during the summit the government would try to persuade more people in Germany to take up jobs in the IT industry before easing regulation for foreigners.

Bitkom -- whose more than 1,000 members include Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Microsoft (MSFT.O) Germany and SAP (SAPG.DE) -- says the German IT and telecoms sector has 43,000 vacancies for skilled workers.

Many highly trained Germans seek employment abroad for lower tax rates, higher pay or better opportunities, while non-European Union citizens seeking work in Germany generally must command a salary more than double the national average to be allowed in.

Germany agreed in August to relax immigration rules for engineers from eastern Europe but has rejected a European Union plan to encourage migration of skilled workers into Europe to ease labour shortages caused by a declining, ageing population.

Bitkom added that 70 percent of the companies it surveyed expected Christmas holiday sales this month to be on the same high level as last year's, helped by demand for flat-screen TVs, multimedia phones and digital cameras.

Seventy-eight percent of companies in the survey expected higher sales in 2008, 16 percent expected stable revenues and 6 percent foresaw a drop, Bitkom said. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, editing by Will Waterman)