Many companies look for new employees in a creative way.
(Photo: imago images/Ralph Peters)
Berlin In Germany, 1.934 million vacancies had to be filled in the second quarter of this year – more than ever before. This is the result of the new job survey by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB).
“Despite the considerable risk of recession, the number of vacancies has continued to rise sharply and is at an exceptionally high level,” said IAB expert Alexander Kubis.
Compared to the first quarter, the number of vacancies has increased by 189,500 or eleven percent, compared to the second quarter of 2021 by 764,400 or 66 percent. 1.47 million positions had to be filled immediately or as soon as possible, 458,000 at a later date.
Service providers in particular are looking for new employees. In the second quarter, 456,600 jobs were advertised for company-related service providers, who work for industrial customers, for example, and 559,100 for other service providers. 219,800 jobs were advertised in manufacturing – an increase of around 3.4 percent on the previous quarter.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
More than 60 percent of the vacancies are in small and medium-sized companies with fewer than 50 employees. Information on the required qualification level is available for the final quarter of 2021. Back then, 16 percent of advertised jobs required a college degree. 60 percent of the vacancies were aimed at applicants with a professional qualification, for 24 percent no special qualifications were required.
>> Read here: Dax companies are looking for 28,000 skilled workers – six companies are hiring massively
“The labor market signals a high demand for work,” said IAB researcher Kubis. “Nevertheless, there are serious risks for the near future, for example with regard to a possible stop in gas supplies from Russia.”
IW study: Gas price doubling could cost more than 300,000 jobs
Even without a delivery stop, the sharp rise in energy prices could also have a negative impact on the labor market, warns the German Economic Institute (IW) in a new study. A simulation by the Cologne researchers shows that if the price of gas doubles in autumn, inflation will rise by up to four percentage points in the coming year. By the end of next year, 337,000 people could lose their jobs as a result.
If the gas price doubles from the second to the third quarter – which seems quite realistic given the current price increases – and the oil price rises by 30 percent, inflation will increase by one percentage point on average in 2022 and by almost four percentage points in the next year, writes the IW. In this case, the gross domestic product would shrink by 0.2 percent this year and by two percent in 2023, which corresponds to a loss of 70 billion euros.
>> Read here: Imminent stoppage of gas deliveries – How short-time work could become suitable for the masses
A doubling of the gas price would increase the unemployment rate by 0.1 percent in the current year, which corresponds to 30,000 job losses, according to IW economist Thomas Obst. According to his calculations, another 307,000 people would be unemployed in the coming year.
“Not included are the effects of production downtimes that would occur if there was no gas at all,” says Obst. “That would trigger additional high price shocks in the value chains.”
More: The robot as savior? This is what a strategy against unemployment could look like