The Federal Employment Agency in Nuremberg has just published its analysis of the shortage of skilled workers for the past year – with some frightening results. The number of professions affected by the shortage has increased by a quarter within a year.
There was a shortage in nursing professions, drivers, medical specialists, in construction professions as well as in childcare, automotive engineering and IT professions. Compared to the previous year, hotel and catering services, metal construction and bus drivers have been added in 2022.
For the so-called Skilled labor shortage analysis The Federal Employment Agency looks at around 1200 occupational fields and evaluates them on the basis of a total of 14 indicators. We speak of a bottleneck occupation when six indicators predominantly point to a bottleneck. These include, for example, the length of time that reported positions have been filled, the job-specific unemployment rate and the evolution of pay.
Lots of jobs for just a few skilled workers
According to the Federal Agency, the start of 2022 was promising. Delivery bottlenecks seemed to be dissolving and the consequences of the pandemic had been overcome in many areas. The Russian invasion of Ukraine In February 2022, however, there was a drastic event when many people fled Ukraine and found protection in Germany, among other places.
This development was also noticeable on the labor market. With the registration of Ukrainian nationals, unemployment increased in the second half of 2022. Despite everything, companies’ need for new workers continued to grow and the number of vacancies reached a record high of almost two million.
Search for highly qualified people
However, the number of bottleneck occupations has also risen to a maximum of 200. A good half of these occupational categories with a bottleneck are occupations at skilled worker level, a good quarter are specialists and a fifth are experts. There are currently no signs of bottlenecks in only 153 occupational categories. The study distinguishes between professionalsafter higher qualified and specifically trained specialists and after Experts | with academic training.
However, these findings are not entirely new. As early as April, the competence center for securing skilled workers (Kofa) of the employer-related Institute of German Business (IW) sounded the alarm. According to this, more than 630,000 vacancies for skilled workers could not be filled last year because there were no suitably qualified unemployed available nationwide. Basically, according to the IW experts, the following rule currently applies on the job market: The higher the required qualification, the more difficult it is to fill vacancies.
There is currently no evidence of a general shortage of workers, according to the Federal Agency’s analysis of the shortage of skilled workers. The available labor supply even significantly exceeds the demand for labor in a number of occupations. However, compared to previous years, there is an increasing shortage on the partial labor market for skilled workers, which is reflected in a significant increase in the number of bottleneck occupations.
In gastronomy, there is a lack of quality in every nook and cranny: in the kitchen as well as in service
Digitization exacerbates the shortage
For a total of 105 professions at the requirement level professional the Federal Institute has identified a shortage of skilled workers for 2022. These included above all nursing professions and medical health professions as well as crafts. There were also bottlenecks in sales jobs – especially in the food trade – as well as in gastronomy and among professional drivers.
For a total of 56 professions at the requirement level specialist bottlenecks were identified. This applies above all to educators, professions in physiotherapy and occupational therapy, nursing professions and professions in the IT sector and in electrical and communication technology.
For a total of 39 professions at the requirement level expert a skills shortage was identified. When it comes to experts, there are bottlenecks in doctors, in pharmacy, in social work, in teachers at vocational schools or in construction (architects and civil engineers). Furthermore, increasing digitization is reflected in the shortage of skilled workers in software development.
There is a shortage not only of nursing staff, but also of doctors in Germany
Only minor local differences
In 2022, there were no shortages of skilled workers in mechanical engineering and industrial engineering in any federal state. In a number of federal states, however, there are signs of shortages that could possibly increase in the coming years.
Specialists in the automotive, aerospace and shipbuilding professions are scarce in all countries. People with jobs in energy technology play an important role in the upcoming energy transition in Germany: In 2022, there was a shortage of qualified energy technicians in every federal state in Germany.
There have been nationwide bottlenecks in nursing professions for years. A medium-term relaxation is not foreseeable at the moment against the background of the demographic development in Germany. In medicine and non-medical therapy, the bottlenecks are mainly in physiotherapy, ergotherapy and speech therapy. In 2022 there was not a single federal state in which there was no bottleneck.
When it comes to caring for the elderly or the sick, workers are desperately needed
No improvement in sight
There was also a nationwide bottleneck in the building construction and civil engineering professions in 2022. In the differentiation by state, however, minor deviations from the national analysis can be seen, such as in building construction occupations in Berlin/Brandenburg. There are now shortages of architects and civil engineers in all countries
Bottlenecks in the area of IT experts have been evident nationwide for years and nothing is likely to change in the near future. Rather, the transformation is likely to further increase the need for IIT experts. In 2022, there were bottlenecks in the area of software development and programming.