The Swedish Games Industry’s newest report estimates that the country’s games sector will be short 25,000 developers in 2031.

The Talent, Education, and the Art of Making Games report explains that the forecast is based on factors such as educational and recruiting opportunities.

In 2021, among the 1,348 game developers that were hired, 616 of them graduated with a higher educational background.

The report says that among Swedish game development students at higher educational institutes, 27% are women.

Additionally, the industry group said that one-third of game employees moved to the country for work.

The Swedish Games Industry solutions to address the game developer employment shortage include:

Creating more schools
Shorter periods for applying for work permits
More research funding
Encouraging women to apply for post-secondary education in games.

“The structural changes that can take place now will take years to have effect, but without them, the situation will be even worse in the future,” the report said.

“Swedish game education only educates enough personnel to satisfy roughly half of the industry’s demand of labour.”