Healthcare and construction are the job sectors most dramatically affected by Germany's skilled labour shortage, according to a new study by the German Economic Institute (IW).
While Germany's severe and growing skilled worker shortage has been known for years, the IW's latest study is the first in which the institute calculated the skills gap by sector, revealing which sectors are most affected and approximately how many workers are needed in each.
For young people considering different career paths or working professionals considering a career pivot, pursuing qualifications in a bottleneck sector promises high job security in the coming years in Germany.
According to IW calculations, in the top ten affected sectors a total of more than 260,000 jobs went unfilled in 2024 due to a lack of qualified workers.
Which sectors need the most workers?
With over 46,000 unfillable positions in 2024, Germany's healthcare sector currently faces the biggest lack of skilled workers.
IW found that in particular, the shortage of physiotherapists was greatest (lacking approximately 11,979 workers), followed by nurses (7,174) and dental assistants (6,778).
The second largest gap was seen in the construction industry with just under 41,300 unfillable positions last year.
Specialists in construction electrics (10,496) and sanitary, heating and air conditioning technology (8,648) were particularly needed.
The sector with the third biggest need for workers was public administration and social affairs, with more than 37,600 unfillable positions - including mainly for specialists in public administration (4,603) and childcare (4,451).
READ ALSO: Why demand for 'career-changers' is rising sharply in Germany
There were also notable shortages of personnel in industry: in the manufacture of metal products, almost 18,500 jobs could not be filled in 2024, as well as around 18,000 mechanical engineering positions.
Additionally, nearly 14,000 legal and tax advice jobs went unfilled.
"Recently, the shortage of skilled workers has decreased due to the weak economy -- but this does not mean an all-clear for the labour market," said IW expert Valeria Quispe in a press release.
She added that the shortage of workers in important bottleneck positions has impacts that are noticeable in everyday life: "Bottlenecks in the healthcare system lead to long waiting times for appointments, and a lack of staff in the construction industry is slowing down residential construction."
Therefore the IW report suggests Germany needs to continue with targeted efforts to secure skilled workers including recruiting workers without vocational qualifications for training and further education, to provide stronger incentives for a longer working life and to promote the immigration of skilled workers.
The importance of immigrant workers
The importance of immigrant workers, especially within the healthcare sector, has been highlighted several times in the past year as the debate around immigration has intensified in Germany.
At the end of 2024, when right-wing politicians began calling for the expulsion of Syrian refugees following the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, German health care providers warned that if many Syrians left Germany the healthcare industry would suffer a huge shortage of workers.
Similar warnings were made again a few months later, when immigration became a point of contentious political debate leading up to snap federal elections in February. One hospital in Darmstadt highlighted the severity of the issue in a video shared on social media.
Beyond healthcare, immigrant workers also make up a large share of workers in various other bottleneck sectors, including; metal-working and heavy industry, catering and hospitality, scaffolding, transportation, meat processing, cleaning buildings and elderly care among others.
READ ALSO: 'Work and Stay Agency' - How Germany plans to speed up skilled worker immigration
Comments