In the public sector, this is one of the things that win Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (from 46 to 38) as well as the ARD (from 34 to 23) in popularity.
| Rang 2026 | Top employer | % 2026 | Rang 2025 | % 2025 | Δ rank (high, low, unchanged) | D % |
| 1 | Apple | 17,6% | 1 | 19,0% | h | -1,4% |
| 2 | Amazon | 15,3% | 2 | 15,7% | h | -0,4% |
| 3 | 11,5% | 3 | 13,0% | h | -1,5% | |
| 4 | Microsoft | 8,4% | 4 | 9,9% | h | -1,5% |
| 5 | BMW Group | 8,1% | 5 | 8,5% | h | -0,4% |
| 6 | NVIDIA | 7,2% | 6 | 7,9% | h | -0,7% |
| 7 | Allianz | 7,0% | 7 | 6,4% | h | 0,6% |
| 8 | Airbus | 5,9% | 9 | 5,4% | t | 0,5% |
| 9 | AUDI AG | 5,6% | 8 | 5,7% | u | -0,1% |
| 10 | Adobe | 4,8% | 11 | 5,1% | t | -0,3% |
| 11 | SAP | 4,5% | 12 | 4,8% | t | -0,3% |
| 12 | 1&1 Telecommunication SE | 4,4% | 14 | 4,3% | t | 0,1% |
| 13 | Porsche | 4,2% | 10 | 5,3% | u | -1,1% |
| 14 | Accenture | 4,0% | 29 | 2,7% | t | 1,3% |
| 14 | IBM | 4,0% | 15 | 4,2% | t | -0,2% |
| 16 | Bosch Group | 3,9% | 13 | 4,5% | u | -0,6% |
| 16 | Samsung | 3,9% | 16 | 3,7% | h | 0,2% |
| 18 | AXA | 3,6% | 25 | 2,9% | t | 0,7% |
| 18 | CISCO | 3,6% | 21 | 3,4% | t | 0,2% |
| 20 | BSI | 3,5% | 16 | 3,7% | u | -0,2% |
| 21 | Intel | 3,3% | 22 | 3,2% | t | 0,1% |
| 22 | ALDI DX | 3,2% | Neu | |||
| 23 | ARD | 3,1% | 34 | 2,3% | t | 0,8% |
| 23 | Federal Criminal Police Office | 3,1% | 23 | 3,1% | h | 0,0% |
| 25 | Atos IT Solutions and Services | 3,0% | 34 | 2,3% | t | 0,7% |
| 25 | BND | 3,0% | 25 | 2,9% | h | 0,1% |
| 27 | Blizzard Entertainment | 2,9% | 24 | 3,0% | u | -0,1% |
| 27 | Deutsche Telekom | 2,9% | 31 | 2,4% | t | 0,5% |
| 27 | Mercedes-Benz Group | 2,9% | 19 | 3,5% | u | -0,6% |
| 30 | Bundeswehr | 2,8% | 30 | 2,5% | h | 0,3% |
IT students prefer Big Tech instead of DAX
A similar picture emerges among IT students. The rankings reflect the high appeal of companies that stand for digital products, platforms, cloud technologies, artificial intelligence and semiconductor development.
Here too, the large international tech companies will continue to dominate in 2026, albeit with a slightly different emphasis than the IT professionals already employed. Here too lies Apple clearly at the top, followed by Google and NVIDIAwhich moved up one position to third place. Microsoft moves up to fourth place, while Amazon falls from third to fifth place.
But automobile manufacturers will also remain attractive for aspiring computer scientists in 2026. So can BMW Maintain sixth place in the rankings. Porsche reached seventh place, Mercedes-Benz and Audi follow in tenth and twelfth place.
What is also striking is the growing visibility of safety-oriented employers. The BND improved by two positions compared to the previous year and landed in 16th place Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution even climbed from rank 47 to rank 35. Also interesting: During Schwarz IT ranked among IT experts in terms of attractiveness as in 2025 under “also ran” (47th place), the (not only) internal IT service provider of the Lidl discounter was able to improve from 37th place to 22nd place.
The evaluation of also shows that there are obviously different priorities Tesla: Elon Musk has lost popularity as an employer among both groups. However, the car brand is now only in 31st place among IT professionals (previous year: 19), while among IT students it is still in 22nd place (previous year: 13).
