The great wave: The increasing demand for digital competence within the public sector

Abstract

The increasing diffusion of digital government has led to numerous reports on both significant progress and failure in terms of digital transformation. Previous research highlights the role of digital competence as a pre-requisite for successful digital transformation, yet few studies have addressed the actual state of digital competence demand in the public sector. We study the development of digital competence demand in the Swedish public sector for the period 2006–2020. Utilizing a complete, open dataset of all job postings, we find that the digital competence demand in public sector recruitment has significantly increased. At the same time, the public sector lags behind the private in terms of digital competence demand. These findings are discussed from the perspectives of both the need for further research into human resource-related aspects of digital government and the national digital government policy. We also discuss the potential impact of disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2009 financial crisis on digital competence demand.