We’re pleased to share the 2026 edition of the ECDA DEI Report, a landmark publication from the European Chips Diversity Alliance.
Retaining Technical Talent in the European Semiconductor Sector is ECDA’s largest study to date on why technical workers stay in — or leave — the European semiconductor sector. Drawing on a survey of 220 technical workers across 15 European countries, alongside interviews with HR professionals in Germany and France and national sector bodies in Spain and Ireland, the report investigates a retention crisis hiding in plain sight: 26% of technical workers plan to leave their employer within three years, just as the sector braces for 114,000 retirements by 2030 against a graduate pipeline growing only 1% a year.
Rather than stopping at the scale of the problem, the report digs into what actually drives departures — and the findings challenge some common assumptions. Pay is what workers ask for most, but it isn’t what predicts who leaves; fairness in how career progression is decided is the strongest signal, with workers who see it as unfair nearly two and a half times more likely to be planning an exit. Younger workers are leaving at roughly double the rate of Gen X, not because they’re treated worse, as they report the best support of any generation, but because they define career growth differently, prioritizing technical mastery over titles or promotions. Meanwhile, workload turns out to be a shared experience across stayers and leavers alike; what actually separates the two groups is whether people feel supported, heard, and like they belong.
The report closes with nine concrete recommendations: six for employers and three for policymakers. They are built directly on these findings, from publishing transparent progression frameworks to protecting fairness through the mid-career years when trust erodes most. It’s a practical, evidence-based case that retention in the semiconductor sector is a solvable problem, not an inevitability.
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