Significantly higher wages, fewer unemployed – according to leading experts, Germany is facing a new miracle in the labor market.
“Excellent job prospects”
The reason is a worsening shortage of skilled workers. The German City Council predicts that 230,000 teachers and 300,000 nurses should be employed in the coming years in hospitals, nursing homes and kindergartens alone.
“German workers have excellent job prospects over the next few years,” – former chief economist Prof. Lars Feld of the University of Freiburg said in an interview with the BILD newspaper. “For the first time since the 1960s, we could reach full employment again with an unemployment rate of 3-4 percent.”
Currently, many industries in Germany are facing a labor shortage. 80% of restaurants are understaffed (according to the Dehoga Association). In the crafts, there is a shortage of 250,000 workers (according to the ZDH Association). According to the Government Employment Agency (BA for short), it currently takes an average of 207 days to fill a vacant plumber position. For excavator drivers, the time is 198 days and it takes an average of 171 days to hire a painter.
Worker market
Germany is slowly becoming a land of milk and honey for workers. Because wages will also rise. Prof. Feld predicts: “We will see much higher wage increases than before”. Ifo President, Prof. Clemens Fuest adds in an interview with BILD: “The shortage of skilled workers will cause companies to pay more. In terms of employment conditions, employers will be forced to take employees’ expectations into account to a greater extent than at present.
Another piece of good news that is sure to please part of the public: even low-skilled or unskilled workers are desperately needed, Feld adds – for example in the catering industry or in logistics as truck drivers.
Source: www.bild.de