The shortage of skilled workers has reached a peak and is increasingly burdening the German economy. At 49.7 percent, almost half of all companies surveyed by the Munich Ifo Institute said in July that they were restricted by a lack of qualified specialists. This is the highest value since the quarterly survey began in 2009. Compared to the previous record from April, the number rose again by 6.1 percentage points.
“More and more companies have to limit their business because they simply can’t find enough staff,” said Ifo labor market expert Stefan Sauer. “In the medium and long term, this problem is likely to become even more serious.”
The problem has increased significantly in the observation period since 2009: At the beginning, the values were still around 10 percent, but by 2019 they had already risen to a dimension of 30 percent, before the Corona crisis caused an interim slump. Since the beginning of last year things have been going uphill again.
The service industry is hardest hit – like most of the time during the observation period – with 54.2 percent, followed by manufacturing with 44.5 percent, retail with 41.9, construction with 39.3 and wholesale with 36.3 percent .
The individual sectors hit hardest are temporary work with 77.9 percent, as well as legal and tax advice and auditing with 71 percent. The pharmaceutical and chemical industries report the lowest skills shortages with 17.2 and 24.1 percent respectively. The automotive industry is also below average at 30.5 percent, as is mechanical engineering, albeit less so, at 43 percent. (dpa)