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According to the Federal Audit Office, the federal government is creating more jobs than it can fill

2022-05-07T06:58:36.474Z


A good 30,000 new jobs have been created in federal agencies in recent years. However, according to the Federal Audit Office, many positions are vacant – in one authority even every second position.


Enlarge image

BKA officials: Every fourth position in the authority remained vacant

Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa

The federal government has created tens of thousands of new jobs in recent years, many of which it was unable to fill.

This emerges from an unpublished report by the Federal Court of Auditors to the budget committee of the Bundestag, which is available to SPIEGEL.

According to this, a total of 30,686 new jobs were created in the federal administration in the election period from 2017 to 2021, which corresponds to an increase of twelve percent.

At the same time, the proportion of unfilled positions rose from eight to eleven percent.

More than two thirds of the authorities had more vacancies at the end of the election period than at the beginning.

"The goals associated with the new positions of strengthening certain tasks could therefore not always be achieved," criticize the auditors.

At 16 percent, the increase in federal ministries was even higher than the average for all authorities.

The highest percentage increases were in the Ministry of Health (plus 43 percent), the Ministry of the Interior (plus 37 percent) and the Ministry of Family Affairs (plus 35 percent).

The particularly strong increase in the health sector was also related to the corona pandemic.

The Robert Koch Institute alone received 230 new jobs.

At the same time, however, the so-called job gap, i.e. the proportion of unfilled posts, opened up almost everywhere.

In the Federal Foreign Office and Ministry of Justice it was around 13 percent in 2020 and 11 percent in the Ministry of the Interior.

On average, every tenth post in a federal ministry was vacant.

The gaps in some subordinate authorities were even more drastic.

For example, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) recorded an increase of 40 percent, but could not fill every fourth position.

There were a total of eight subordinate authorities in which more than 20 percent of the posts were vacant.

Training delays the occupation

According to the report, employees at the BKA, just like at customs or the federal police, must first undergo special training, which can delay the filling of vacancies.

Some authorities have also been rebuilt or rebuilt - such as the Federal Highway Authority, which was only founded in 2018.

Every second position there was vacant last year.

From the ACA's point of view, there are also other reasons for the lack of staff, such as competition from the private sector.

The Federal Court of Auditors considers it »not very effective« to create additional posts for areas of responsibility in which there are already large job gaps.

According to the report, existing vacancies should be filled beforehand.

Other recommendations include an annual report by the Treasury Department to document the proportion of vacancies in federal agencies and the development of the respective job gaps.

However, the ministry rejected the recommendation, saying such a report would be "extremely detailed."

The developments described are still the responsibility of the grand coalition.

However, the trend of job growth has continued even after the change of government.

According to the Court of Auditors, a total of 313 new positions have been created for the federal ministries in December 2021 and January 2022 for the 2021 budget alone.

"Obviously not only the Bundestag is overstaffed, but also the federal government," criticizes Gesine Lötzsch, budget spokeswoman for the left.

"The job gap shows that it's not about completing the necessary tasks, but about the race to see which ministry has the most jobs." Lötzsch called for a cap on all job plans of the federal government until the positions already approved have been filled.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2022-05-07

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