The German economy is suffering from a shortage of skilled workers. A study shows which professions could see a particularly large increase in the coming years.
How will the skills gap develop in the coming years? Researchers at the German Economic Institute (IW), which is close to employers, have investigated this. The biggest gap will be among salespeople. By 2027, there could be a shortage of around 37,000 skilled workers, according to a study.
Reorientation in the pandemic
There are already shortages of salespeople in many places. In 2022, the number of unemployed in this sector was significantly lower (45,000) than the number of vacancies (65,000). According to study author and economist Alexander Burstedde, the shortage is also due to the fact that many employees have changed careers during the Corona pandemic and have not returned to their old jobs.
Sales professionals are the fourth largest professional group in Germany, with almost 850,000 employees. These include retail salespeople and specialist salespeople – i.e. people who work in shops with customer contact, such as cashiers or other sales staff.
Experts expect the second largest shortage of skilled workers to be among educators. According to calculations, more than 27,600 positions could be unfilled by 2027. The number of employees is increasing, but not fast enough to meet the rapidly growing demand, says Burstedde. “We need more educators to enable parents to work more.” There is also a shortage of skilled workers in social work, nursing and IT.
Major shortage expected in East Germany
Overall, a skills gap is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, with the increase being more pronounced in eastern Germany, according to the IW. The main reason for this is that many people will be retiring in the coming years and there will be too few young people to take their place.
The IW expects the biggest decline in employment by 2027 to be among semi-skilled and unskilled workers in metalworking and among trained bank clerks. “The old saying ‘Do something safe and get a banking apprenticeship’ is no longer valid. The banks don’t know what to do with the people at the counter because many branches are closing and customers are doing online banking,” says Burstedde.
The scientist recommends two measures to combat the skills gap. Employers should try to keep older people in employment longer. Immigrants also offer great potential to counteract shortages.
Source: Stern
