Labor market: temporary work – industry advertises with sustainable employment prospects

Baggage handling at the airport

When staff became scarce in the summer, workers from abroad were supposed to help. But Minister of Labor Heil did not want to shake the recruitment ban for temporary work agencies.

(Photo: IMAGO/brennweiteffm)

Berlin With a reform of immigration law, the federal government wants to counteract the shortage of skilled workers and workers in Germany. However, temporary employment agencies should also be prohibited from recruiting staff from third countries and employing them in Germany.

Because in contrast to the FDP, the SPD and the Greens continue to see temporary work critically. In their election manifestos, they had campaigned for stricter regulation, for example through an obligation to pay temporary workers the same wages as permanent employees from day one.

Although they were not able to assert themselves in the coalition, they do not want to give the personnel service providers a role in the recruitment of skilled workers. Among other things, they see the danger that the temporary employment agencies could bring in a significant number of workers from abroad, but only employ them for a short time, so that they could then become a burden on the social system.

The Federal Employers’ Association of Personnel Service Providers (BAP) is now trying to counter these fears with the argument that taking up employment in temporary work is often at least as sustainable as in other sectors.

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The association relies on a special evaluation by the Federal Employment Agency (BA), which is available to the Handelsblatt. For the period from August 2020 to July 2021, the Nuremberg authorities analyzed how many previously unemployed still had a job subject to social security contributions a year after taking up employment.

This shows that, across all qualification levels, the proportion of people taking up temporary work is 80.5 percent, slightly lower than the average for the other sectors at 82.4 percent. This also takes into account if a temporary worker changed jobs during the year and found work in another industry.

When it comes to helper activities, temporary work is more sustainable than other sectors

The situation is different for skilled workers, who are the main targets of the immigration reform. Around 83 percent of the formerly unemployed with vocational training were still in work a year after taking up employment – ​​regardless of whether they started in temporary employment or another industry.

In the case of helper activities, on the other hand, a temporary job is even more sustainable than taking up work in another industry. A year later, 79.1 percent of the unemployed who started as temporary workers in helper activities were still in employment subject to social security contributions, but the proportion on the overall labor market was somewhat lower at 78.6 percent.

>> Read here: Skilled workers – a survey shows who really wants to come to Germany

Business associations such as the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) have long been campaigning for overturning the ban on third-country nationals in temporary employment enshrined in the Residence Act.

They argue that personnel service providers could help small and medium-sized companies without a large human resources department in attracting and recruiting foreign specialists. The mechanical engineering association VDMA therefore sent a letter to the Federal Ministers of Labor and Interior Affairs, Hubertus Heil and Nancy Faeser (both SPD), who are responsible for immigration.

When the staff at German airports became scarce in the summer and workers were to be recruited from abroad, Heil made it clear once again that employment through temporary employment agencies was out of the question for him. Temporary work plays a central role in the labor market integration of refugees. Around a third of the jobs this group takes is via the industry.

More: From deportation to “turbo naturalization” – these are the reform plans of the traffic light on immigration

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