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Nursing staff in a senior citizen center in Thuringia: a total of 17 percent are looking for skilled workers abroad
Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa
Despite the corona crisis, the shortage of skilled workers is still burdening the German economy.
54 percent of companies are expecting bottlenecks in 2021, according to the Bertelsmann Stiftung's current skilled worker migration monitor.
As in 2020, decision-makers from companies of different sizes in Germany were interviewed for the survey.
In the previous year, 55 percent said they had fewer skilled workers than needed.
At the top of the sought-after skilled workers is the group with completed vocational training (37 percent) ahead of academics (27).
The health sector is particularly suffering
"Larger companies are more often affected by the shortage of skilled workers than small ones," says Matthias Mayer, migration expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation.
"The health and construction sectors in particular suffer from bottlenecks."
In the fight against the shortage of skilled workers, companies are therefore primarily focusing on training new employees and training existing staff.
The companies also try to keep their employees in the company with a better work-life balance.
Only 17 percent say they are looking for skilled workers abroad.
Staff from the EU and other European countries are preferred here.
Then come Asia and the Middle East.
There is very little experience with skilled workers from Africa.
Language problems and the assessment of the qualifications obtained in the home country are named as major hurdles.
Legal hurdles or entry restrictions due to the corona pandemic therefore only play a subordinate role.
For the monitor, depending on the question, 500 or 2500 decision-makers in German companies of various sizes were surveyed online from September 21 to October 20, 2020.
The figures on the immigration and emigration of foreign skilled workers relate to the year 2019 and are from the central register of foreigners.
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apr / dpa