Many craft businesses are fully booked for months and are desperately looking for specialists. "At the moment, our companies' order books are sometimes so full that they even have to reject orders because they simply do not have enough employees to process everything," reports the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH). Almost half of the companies find it difficult to find personnel. The association put the number of registered vacancies at around 150,000 - but it is probably even higher.
According to the ZDH, the reasons for this development are falling school leavers and an increased tendency to study. "This was accompanied by the devaluation of the dual training", the association criticized. "For many years, too few young people have opted for an apprenticeship in the trade." A change in awareness is necessary: "Vocational training must again be shown the appreciation of our society that it deserves."
At a press conference of the ZDH in Boppard for the autumn conference of the chief executives of the 53 chambers of handicrafts, these topics will be discussed on Wednesday. "We need a balanced balance of vocationally and academically trained people, otherwise the foundations of our economy will become fragile."
The IT industry is also complaining
But not only the craft is looking for qualified employees. Even young companies in the digital economy fear that they will not be able to take advantage of the opportunities that arise because they lack people, as a survey by the consulting firm PwC shows.
Almost two thirds (62 percent) of the companies surveyed reported difficulties in finding skilled workers. We were looking for programmers, IT security experts and developers - professions in which growth companies compete with established companies. A quarter of respondents complained that applicants chose large and well-known companies. Another 35 percent state that job aspirants' salary demands are too high. Excessive social benefits would also be expected.
As a result, the start-ups are increasing their workforce more slowly: 61 percent of those surveyed want to hire more employees in 2018 and grow by an average of 8 percent. In the previous year's survey, the values were significantly higher at 67 and 16 percent.
A recent study by the digital association Bitkom showed that many start-ups cannot fill vacancies because there are no suitable applicants. The association found 55,000 IT specialists were missing in Germany. Many companies competed for computer scientists and engineers. "As a rule, start-ups cannot pay the salaries that established companies offer."
