In the skilled trades, the shortage of skilled workers is particularly great at the moment.
(Photo: imago/Frank Sorge)
Berlin Craftsmen are in short supply, educators are lacking, as are nursing and IT specialists or professional drivers. The IAB research institute counts around 1.9 million vacancies, and the German Economic Institute reports that there is a shortage of 540,000 skilled workers, with an upward trend.
Despite the war in Ukraine and the energy price shock, despite the fear of a new recession, the German economy is creating jobs like never before. The new job miracle cannot really surprise. Part of the additional demand is politically induced. In order to achieve the climate goals, sanitary and air conditioning technicians are needed or fitters who screw solar systems onto the roofs.
The admission of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan and currently from the Ukraine is increasing the need for staff in day-care centers and schools. Immigrants help to eliminate labor shortages and stabilize the social system, but in turn need housing that construction workers have yet to create.
Part of the need also arises simply from demographics. As society ages, more workers are needed in healthcare and nursing.
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Undesirable developments from the past are now taking their revenge, such as the long-held misconception that a successful career can only be pursued with a high school diploma and a degree. Or the fatal “stinginess is awesome” mentality that carried customers into the restaurant or to the low-cost flight counter – with the consequence that after Corona, cooks or check-in employees preferred to look for jobs that earned more leaves.
Reorientation of employees required
A lot has happened in terms of pay in nursing, but the working conditions are still amazing. There is no quick remedy in sight, training in crafts, nursing or IT takes years.
>> Read here: More and more young people are getting bogged down in unskilled jobs – but tens of thousands of apprenticeships remain vacant
The domestic potential is limited, part-time quotas cannot be increased at will, the unemployed often lack the right qualifications or they do not live where there are vacancies. The most acute staff shortages can only be solved with targeted immigration. But it alone will not be enough.
It is also necessary to reorient employees in occupations in which jobs are being lost as a result of digitization or climate change. Even if a career change is associated with a loss of income, there may be no way around it. Otherwise Germany will at some point face the paradoxical situation of an increasing shortage of skilled workers combined with rising unemployment.
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