At the end of February, Russia invaded Ukraine. As a result, the demand for weapons and armor experienced a significant increase. Not only does Ukraine increasingly need material for defense, but other countries, such as Germany, are also arming themselves due to the new threat of war. For the German armaments industry, this means an increasing need for personnel.
An exclusive evaluation by “Index Research” for the star has shown that the number of jobs offered in the armaments industry, which includes the manufacture of weapons, ammunition and military combat vehicles, has increased significantly since the beginning of the Ukraine war. To do this, what claims to be Europe’s largest job advertisements database has analyzed the advertised jobs in several hundred print and online media, 150,000 company websites and the job portal of the Federal Employment Agency.
In the period examined from January 1st to July 31st, 2022, there were 4543 jobs from a total of 47 companies. For comparison: In the same period of the previous year there were 2205 jobs. The advertised positions have recently experienced an increase of 82.9 percent, whereas the numbers up to last year were still down by almost 30 percent.
In the current year, job offers increased from February – from 372 out of a total of 29 companies in January, to 438 out of 34 companies in February, to 563 out of 40 companies in May. The fifth month of the year was the high point of the period surveyed, which was also reflected in the sales – from a good 332,000 euros in January to almost 600,000 euros in May. In June and July, the number of jobs then fell slightly by around 30 each.
Jürgen Grenz, CEO of the Index Group says: “In the course of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, awareness of the importance of the military and its equipment for national defense has increased in Germany and internationally. The high demand for employees shows that the products of the German armaments companies are asked.”
By far the most jobs in the armaments industry were advertised by the large armaments company Rheinmetall, which produces tanks and artillery: 688 in number. Ammunition manufacturer Ruag Ammotec came second with 184 positions. The armaments company Diehl Defense had 73 jobs, the tank manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann 72 jobs and just behind them the arms manufacturer Blaser Group with 66 jobs.
Most jobs were in the technical field (524). These include engineers, designers and architects, who were wanted by 42 companies. This was followed by positions in construction, trades and the environment (325), organisation/project management (200), research/development and high-tech/scientific occupations (173) and corporate governance/management (150).
In Bavaria, the most jobs were registered with 355. In Lower Saxony there were 309 jobs, closely followed by Hesse with 291 jobs. Saarland was in the middle with 72 positions and Rhineland-Palatinate with 38 positions. Hamburg counted 12 places. In the city ranking, the Hessian city of Kassel was ahead with 286 places, followed closely by the Lower Saxony city of Celle (282 places).
The development in the armaments industry is likely to continue; the Bundeswehr receives 100 billion for modernization and rearmament as part of a special program. The defense electronics manufacturer Hensoldt, for example, recorded strong growth last year and most recently increased its sales by a good 40 percent to 682 million euros in the first half of 2022. The company now expects further orders due to the German Armed Forces rearmament. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) only announced on Monday that he wanted to invest in a new air defense system together with his European neighbors.
Sources: Index Research, with material from the dpa
