Quasi ogni pochi giorni ci sono notizie che dicono che la Germania ha problemi demografici e ha bisogno di milioni di lavoratori, soprattutto stranieri (ecco l’ultimo). Anche i siti di social media sono pieni di video che lo dicono migliaia di posti di lavoro nella tecnologia o in altri lavori simili autisti di autobus o sono aperti anche lavori semiqualificati o non qualificati. So che l’orario dei trasporti pubblici della mia città è ridotto a causa della mancanza di autisti!
MA, un tema comune su molti grandi e autentici gruppi Facebook per espatriati in Germania o anche sui forum online è che così tante persone sono arrivate in Germania di recente e non riescono a trovare lavoro per mesi. Ancora peggio, migliaia di persone lasceranno la Germania nel giro di pochi mesi perché licenziate durante il periodo di prova o se ne andranno loro stesse per problemi burocratici o di altro tipo.
Quindi la mia domanda a tutti i cittadini tedeschi e anche agli immigrati è:
- Qual è la tua opinione o esperienza riguardo a questo fenomeno?
- Hai visto anche tu nei tuoi ambienti o nei tuoi datori di lavoro lottare per assumere manodopera?
- Perché pensi che ci siano così tante contraddizioni? Da un lato tante notizie sulla carenza di manodopera e dall’altro tante notizie e informazioni su persone che non hanno lavoro? Pensi che ci sia una sorta di lobbying da parte delle industrie per i propri interessi?
Un altro punto è che ci sono così tante notizie che l’economia tedesca si sta contraendo e le aziende tedesche lo sono licenziandone migliaia di persone! Allora come mai questi ‘studi’ arrivano all’enorme numero di manovali/dipendenti richiesti?
Ancora una volta, il mio obiettivo è comprendere l’aspetto economico e sociale e non quello politico. Il mio compagno e i miei coinquilini stanno cercando di decidere se restare in Germania o tornare nel nostro paese. Siamo tutti altamente qualificati in ruoli diversi con molta esperienza lavorativa, ma non siamo riusciti a trovare lavoro nell’ultimo anno. Ma dall’altro lato vediamo notizie come questa che dicono “288.000 lavoratori stranieri necessari ogni anno fino al 2040”. Allora pensiamo se stiamo commettendo un errore.
Io e la maggior parte delle persone che conosco siamo consapevoli dei requisiti linguistici. Noi stessi siamo al B2 tedesco dopo mesi di fatiche ma conosciamo tante persone qualificate anche in informatica e dati che sono C1 (immigrati e cittadini) che non riescono a trovare lavoro. Nelle interviste, molte aziende affermano che “la nostra lingua di lavoro è l’inglese e i clienti sono internazionali”, ma è meglio conoscere il tedesco fluentemente. È molto difficile diventare un “madrelingua tedesco” in uno o due anni, ma la maggior parte delle aziende insiste per avere competenze di livello “nativo”. Siamo pronti per imparare la lingua ma raggiungere il livello C1 richiede molto tempo. Una persona che abbiamo incontrato in una scuola di lingue ha diversi anni di esperienza lavorativa come autista di autobus ma non riesce a trovare lavoro.
Molte persone dai nostri paesi d’origine (Asia, Africa, Sud America) stanno progettando di venire qui in Germania poiché vedono continuamente notizie secondo cui la Germania ha bisogno di migliaia di lavoratori. Spero che le vostre risposte possano aiutare anche loro, oltre ad aiutare noi.
Comunque, grazie per aver letto fino a qui. Aspetto con ansia una discussione rispettosa. Grazie!
German citizens and immigrants in Germany, what are your views about the lack of workers/labor here in Germany?
byu/DeutschTruffle ingermany
di DeutschTruffle
26 Comments
It’s because the people come here largely want to work in IT and that demand has just dried up.
We need workers, just not all in IT.
There is a lack of cheap workers. Not workers in general
there are enough workers. the pay is bad.
There’s lack of cheap skilled workers who take up jobs well below the market rates.
I think a lot of HR people are very conservative and do not understand that people actually can learn new stuff.
There are enough people but:
1. For some jobs the payment is too low.
2. For some jobs the payment is too high.
There are more than enough workers. Problem is the pay. Prices are rising constantly while pay stays basically the same. Even if the pay doea rise it certainly will not be enough to keep up with the current inflation.
there is no lack of workers, there is a lack of willingness to pay fair
Germany is not very good at making the most out of their current workers. The idea that more and more people is needed can be true for some fields but not all.
A few problems I see:
– No incentives for people to work more. This means there are a lot of people that only work 80% or so because they just don’t think the increase in salary justifies working 100% after you account for taxes. Plenty of the senior staff at my previous IT company were working like this. I assume it could be true for other fields too.
– Inadequate language skills. A few of my colleagues came to Germany with their wives that have since struggled to find work in their fields due to not having fluency in the German language. Not necessarily a problem with Germany specifically but it’s 1 less worker that already lives here.
– Colleagues that abuse the sick day system and are seemingly always out and no one can fire them due to exceedingly long notice periods (6 months). Have a few of those at my company.
Companies don’t want to pay market level salaries and looking for cheap labor.
Judging by my work place, they can’t afford hiring software engineers from Germany or even EU. It’s always from other continents and then we have culture problems for 2 years with the new hires. It feels like they also hire them from outside the EU so that they have a harder time to quit and find a better paying job.
Apart from the pay problem that many people mentioned, there’s also a language issue. Most people don’t come knowing enough German to work in the language, but a lot of jobs need people to know German.
Basically both is true (lack of workers and people not being able to find jobs), because the requirements demanded and the skills supplied are mismatched.
I work in healthcare space and demand in healthcare is very high (doctors, nurses, care workers in hospitals pharma experts in German Pharma companies). I have worked in English speaking countries (comparing to US/Ireland/UK/Australia) as well, so comparing to those countries and even after PPP, pay is quite low in Germany. Only 0.5% workers in Germany make above €150,000!
FAANG (Tech) companies in India give more than companies in Germany. Given there is so much outcry by German media, most workers come thinking for IT (but obviously they are disappointed with the pay). Anyhow, Germany gets leftovers of IT workers from India, as quality in most cases moves to English speaking countries or stay in India within FAANG or similar companies. So I don’t think Germany need highly skilled people (they can’t afford is another point I don’t wanna dwell into), they need skilled people (not the best as in case of the US) at as much as low cost possible! This could replicate to Pharma, healthcare, energy, automotive, etc (e.g., pay of doctor from India who did residency in the US vs pay for specialist physician in Germany, Germany just pays 1/3rd of pay or less for specialist physicians in the US).
My husband is a German citizen, I am not. It took me over six months to find a new job, with constant interviews, and it was only for something in service industry and my German is at B1. My husband is a skilled worker with a degree and has been looking for a job for almost six months now. Out of everything only two interviews, and most jobs have said they’ll set up an interview and then never do. I’m frankly at a loss.
The correct term is in German “Fachkräftemangel” that a shortage of skilled labor supply. It might shock you, but if you do not have the nedded or even regulatory required skill set, you are not in a good position to find something.
Do not forget the general economic siutation. I hired expats in the past, but it took literally years to get them to an acceptable speed & quality.
Just my opinion, to remain globally competitive, a country like Germany need to provide either:
– **High-Tech Products**: Producing cutting-edge, high-quality products requires a steady influx of highly skilled workers. However, countries like the US often attract top talent by offering better salaries, fewer bureaucratic obstacles, and more innovation-friendly environments, leaving Germany at a disadvantage in this race.
**- Low-Cost Products**: Competing in the mass-production market demands inexpensive labor, an area where countries like China dominate with far lower wages and highly efficient production systems.
Germany struggles to attract sufficient high-skilled talent while being unable to match the low labor costs of its competitors.
Many of those unable to find jobs fall into this gap as well—they may lack the advanced skills needed for top-tier roles or cannot compete with offshore workers who accept much lower compensation.
9+ years in chemical manufacturing, and I gotta say, I never felt as dumbed-down as here working in Germany. This idea that you need an Ausbildung for a specific job is one of the main reasons they can’t find enough people. Give me 10 people with no experience and I’d have them operating machines better than what I’ve had to deal with for 9 years. But no, stay the course (downfall)
>all are highly skilled in different roles with lots of work experience but have been unable to find work from the last one year.
‘What specific area? General does not help.
Do you have the required knowledge and skills for Germany as in language and or special knowledge of the local market?
I’m seeing a lot of “there is no lack of workers, just poor pay”. But does that apply to fields like medicine and nursing? Is it really just a manufactured shortage? When doctors in Germany are some of the best paid workers in the country and a foreign doctor will earn pretty much same as any other German doctor, why is there a shortage there?
There is no lack of worker there is lack of people willing to accept the Bullshit. Bad working conditions causing a migration to other jobs. “Lehrjahre sind keine Herrenjahre” and suddenly “oh no why can’t I find a (insert rnd blue-collar job) anymore for my shitty pay and equally shitty behaviour”. Simple because people gone to better pay/treatment jobs in the same field or changed field completely. Of cause they then scream for immigrants coming into thier field of work because they don’t know rights and accept shitty pay/treatment. It’s not the fault of the migrants but rather a failure (plus planed by the exploitating class) that the national and international working class doesn’t educate each other in thier rights and strike together for better pay and conditions.
As many people said, there is not lack of labor in Germany. There is lack of cheap and at the same time qualified workers. The salaries dropped significantly over last two years, while prices rose. And ministry of economics DOES know it very well, since they know how much taxes do the people pay, they know, how many people are unemployed. But growing popularity of AFD, as only alternative to delusional and most probably corrupt Ampel establishment still surprises them.
A general lack of workers would mean rising wages and/or a willingness for compromises on the hiring side.
Neither is happening. Real Wages are basically stagnant and there are large swathes of the population left off the job market.
Study always overestimates this lack of workers for several reasons. From what I understood, they are based on interviews to companies, that usually mean something like: when I open a position I do not receive at least 100 CVs in 1 hour perfectly fitting it ( just to be a bit sarcastic ). Needless to say that many are ghost positions or not. Usually you have to divide this estimates by a factor from 2 to 10. It is not only a German thing, but apply to all countries now ( also the ones considered poor are complaining about workers shortage ).
You can find easy work but not good paying and with many hickups like I when I was in Germany one company wanted to deliver flour with electric truck but also move the flour bags of 40kg out of the pallet so you’re paid pennies for driving, unloading and moving the flour bags for 16-18€ per hour.
“Lack of workers”
But the emigration of German people to Switzerland is skyrocketing.
There are about 46 Million employees in Germany right now. Due to Babyboomers going into pension and not having produced enough offspring, that number will go down by roughly 7 million within the next 12 years. Either we import foreign workers or we shrink the economy accordingly. Having an imbalance between pensioners and working population, this would mean less tax total income, less investment and less social benefit or higher tax rates within the next 20 to 30 years.
The labor shortage has just started.