EU looks to hi-tech sector for jobs

Brussels - Even with unemployment at record highs, there are hundreds of thousands of jobs available in information technology that governments and companies must work together to fill, the European Commission said Monday.

Launching a 'Grand Digital Coalition', Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said there would be 900 000 vacancies in Europe's Information and Communication Technologies industry between now and 2015 but the number of fresh ICT graduates and skilled workers is simply not keeping up.

"The Grand Coalition we launch today is an essential part of getting Europe's economy back on track and finding jobs for some of Europe's 26 million unemployed," Barroso said.

Filling these jobs will have an impact across the whole economy, he said, and prepare "Europeans to fill the jobs that will drive the next ICT revolution".

Among the larger companies signing up for the programme to provide among other things jobs, training and start-up funding are Spanish telecom's giant Telefonica, Cisco of the United States and Germany's SAP.