The skilled worker situation in Germany remains tense. According to a study, the number of vacancies fell in September and fell by 13 percent compared to the previous year.
However, with a seasonally adjusted 510,000 job vacancies, the skills gap remains at a high level. This emerges from a study by the competence center for securing skilled workers (Kofa) of the employer-related Institute of the German Economy (IW), which is available to the German Press Agency.
Differences in industries
According to this, on average more than four out of ten positions could not be filled with suitably qualified personnel. Experts see the difficult economic situation as the main reason for the slight decline in job vacancies. However, the need has increased significantly in some sectors. There are currently significantly more vacancies for skilled workers in renewable energy technology. Compared to the previous year, the study recorded an increase of 190 percent. Significant job growth can also be observed in other professions that are important for the energy transition. “The increasing skills gap in these professions can endanger the achievement of climate goals,” estimates study author Valeria Quispe.
The personnel situation is particularly tense in the areas of “monitoring and control of railway traffic operations” and “building technology”. In both occupational categories there are only eleven suitably qualified unemployed people for every 100 positions. The need for skilled workers varies considerably depending on the professional group. The area of “linguistics, literature, humanities, social and economic sciences, media, art, culture and design” recorded a particularly significant decline compared to the previous year (-13.9 percent).
While the number of job vacancies has decreased, the number of qualified unemployed people rose to more than one million in September. That is 7.8 percent more than in September 2022. “It would be worthwhile to take a look at semi-skilled and unskilled people. Through targeted further training, at least some of them could be trained to become qualified specialists,” says expert Quispe.
