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Public administration: who should climb the mountains of files?
Photo: Johannes Schmitt-Tegge / picture alliance / dpa
The German Association of Civil Servants (dbb) assumes that there is a glaring staff shortage in the public sector.
"According to the estimates of our 40 member unions, there is a lack of 360,000 employees," said dbb national chairman Ulrich Silberbach of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung".
"In doing so, we not only take vacancies into account," Silberbach continues, "but also the personnel requirements that result from new tasks." In view of the wave of retirements, the dbb boss called for more jobs, a reduction in working hours for civil servants and performance-related pay .
Silberbach pointed out that the number of missing jobs is only a snapshot.
"In the next few years, the number will be much larger due to the retirement of the baby boomers." In order to remedy the shortage of staff, Silberbach called for long-term personnel planning in the administration that takes demographic change into account.
On the other hand, the public service must be made more attractive through incentive systems.
Miraculous federal government priorities
Silberbach was dissatisfied with the work of the federal government.
»The priorities of the new government surprise me: the Federal Minister of the Interior is talking about equal pay in football and early retirement for volunteers instead of finally reducing the weekly working hours of federal civil servants and tackling long-term job planning in the administration.«
In 2020, almost 4.97 million employees worked in the public sector at federal, state and local level, according to the "Public Service Monitor" of the civil servants' association dbb.
In 2019 it was around 4.88 million and the year before 4.80 million.
With around 2.5 million employees, the staff of the federal states make up the largest share in the public service.
This is followed by the municipalities with 1.6 million employees, around 500,000 in the federal government and almost 400,000 in social insurance.
mamk/dpa-AFX
