The German economy lacks skilled workers

 "Companies are entering the new year with astonishing optimism. But the shortage of skilled workers is worrying. Some companies have to change their personnel policy.

"Search very urgently" it said in the job advertisement, but it takes almost five weeks to respond to the online application. The first thing to do is a telephone interview, explains the company's HR manager to the young mechanical engineer. If he passed this, he would follow an assessment center and then there would be two personal interviews, one of them in English. All in all, it would all drag on for another four weeks, at least. The young man declines with thanks: "My certificates are so good that I don't have to do that to myself, then I'll look for something else."

By no means an isolated case. As before, companies are not only exaggerated when it comes to recruiting for academic positions. Just as if, like a few years ago, they could draw from a seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of well-qualified applicants. In fact, there is a shortage of skilled workers that is acutely worsening. 

According to the Nuremberg Federal Employment Agency (BA), a good seven million workers will be missing by 2035 - if something doesn't happen quickly. 

Even now, more people are employed subject to social security contributions than ever before in Germany, 34.4 million. And Corona or delivery problems - the economy in Germany will continue to grow in 2022 and need additional workers.

The German Business Institute (IW), which is close to the employer, asked 48 business associations about their expectations for the coming year. 21 indicated that the companies they organize will need more staff, including the metal and electronics industries and pharmaceutical companies. Only individual sectors, such as the financial sector, which is characterized by increasing digitalization, expect jobs to be lost. Others, trade fair organizers and cruise ship builders, for example, are cautious with forecasts because their businesses are particularly hard hit by the pandemic. But almost half of the more than 2,800 companies surveyed by the IW expect more production and larger business volumes in 2022. The bottom line is that the downsizing in individual sectors is more than offset by growth in others, according to the IW.

The gap between job supply and demand quickly widened

The German economy is going into the coming year with "broad optimism", says IW boss Michael Hüther. The mood is clearer than ever since the annual survey was conducted, it is said.  However, concern is mixed with confidence when it comes to personnel. 

The gap between job supply and demand will widen fairly quickly in the coming years, the more employees from the baby boomer cohort retire. 

To take countermeasures, the HR departments not only need more flexibility in dealing with applicants.

BA boss Detlef Scheele calls for as many people as possible to be kept in working life, including the less qualified. "It is important that we win as many potential workers in Germany as possible and certainly not lose anyone," said Scheele of the dpa news agency. The Federal Employment Agency will take up to 900 million euros in 2022 to further educate people for other, ideally more highly qualified, jobs, people who are no longer working . The BA sees itself as a moderator of the transformation on the labor market. However, you would have to tell the employers in which directions the qualification should go, so Scheele.

His BA colleague Daniel Terzenbach is convinced that the problem cannot be solved from Germany alone. The demographic development will cause "a clear cut on the labor market" in the coming years. More than ever, skilled workers from abroad must be directed to Germany and the migration of well-qualified employees abroad must be prevented, he told Zeit online. "That is why we have to search all over the world.""

We hear a strong sucking sound in our surroundings. In place of Šimonytė I would be really worried. She might become a Prime Minister of empty Lithuania when the Covid will be gone.