Germany Faces Skilled Labor Shortage

Labor shortages are threatening to undermine Germany’s economic recovery as companies struggle to fill around 1.6 million vacancies, the DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Germany’s labor market has gone from strength to strength, with the jobless total falling more than expected in February and employment hitting a record high in January, fuelling a consumer-led upswing. But the unusually long growth cycle in Europe’s biggest economy, now in its ninth year, combined with a long-signaled shortage of people of working age mean that German firms are running out of suitable staff. “A growing number of German companies are facing bottlenecks in skilled labor and this is becoming a challenge for the entire economy,” DIHK’s deputy managing director Achim Dercks said. In light of Germany’s rapidly aging society, he called on the government to expand vocational training and attract more skilled workers from abroad. A DIHK survey of some 24,000 companies showed nearly every second one is unable to find suitable candidates for job vacancies over a longer period and six out of 10 managers see the lack of qualified staff as a threat to their business.