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Shortage of skilled workers: craft businesses offer a 4-day week with a full salary - but that's not enough

2022-08-04T09:06:44.851Z


Shortage of skilled workers: craft businesses offer a 4-day week with a full salary - but that's not enough Created: 08/04/2022, 10:55 am By: Julian Baumann In order to counteract the shortage of skilled workers, some craft businesses offer a 4-day week. © Arnulf Hettrich/Imago Craft businesses are struggling with full order books and too few staff. Some therefore already offer a 4-day week -


Shortage of skilled workers: craft businesses offer a 4-day week with a full salary - but that's not enough

Created: 08/04/2022, 10:55 am

By: Julian Baumann

In order to counteract the shortage of skilled workers, some craft businesses offer a 4-day week.

© Arnulf Hettrich/Imago

Craft businesses are struggling with full order books and too few staff.

Some therefore already offer a 4-day week - with full payment. 

Stuttgart - IT companies and start-ups are now increasingly working with a 4-day week with the same pay.

In many cases, Friday is free, but the remaining days are sometimes longer than eight hours.

Such a measure has so far been rather atypical for craft businesses.

According to a recent report by

WirtschaftsWoche

, however, many companies are now advertising the 4-day week to recruit skilled workers.

Lidl has also introduced a 4-day week, but only for selected employees.

The shortage of skilled workers, especially in the area of ​​craftsmen and service providers, has been increasing for several years.

A projection by the Stuttgart Chamber of Industry and Commerce already showed in July 2021 that by 2035 there would be a shortage of around 863,000 skilled workers in the south-west alone.

In the same year, the German Economic Institute (IW) determined that there were only around 140,000 job-seeking craftsmen for more than 200,000 vacancies in the trades.

For many craft businesses, the offer of a 4-day week is therefore not sufficient, as

BW24

reports.

Shortage of skilled workers in the trade - "all ideas should be thought through without taboos"

Of course, doing less work for the same salary initially sounds like a lucrative offer.

Due to the full order books of many companies, shorter working hours are currently rather utopian.

"The extremely full order books actually contradict such ideas," explained Gerd Kistenfeger from the Chamber of Crafts Region Stuttgart when asked by

BW24

.

Currently, many craftsmen would have to work overtime to be able to process the many customer inquiries.

"However, all ideas that could counteract the shortage of skilled workers in the skilled trades should be thought through without taboos," says Kistenfeger.

"At first glance, a 4-day week is of course an attractive working time model."

According to WirtschaftsWoche

, the Gaßner plumbing and heating company in the Baden-Württemberg municipality of Denkingen (Tuttlingen district) has

already added a 4-day week.

Although the employees work longer at 9.25 hours a day, they have a full day off and a total of only 37 hours instead of a 40-hour week.

Since some employees work Monday through Thursday and others Tuesday through Friday, the company still accepts customer orders every day of the week.

However, this measure is of little help when looking for new applicants.

"We certainly hoped otherwise," said Ayleen Bauser, who runs the business with her husband Marcus Gassner.

A 4-day week in the skilled trades is often not enough to attract applicants

In the case of Stefan Peter, who runs a carpentry shop in Viechtach in eastern Bavaria, the measure is not enough to recruit specialists.

"Advertising only with the 4-day week doesn't help much," he told

WirtschaftsWoche

.

In his company, the employees have been working only from Monday to Thursday for two and a half years, but 9.75 hours a day.

Because it is currently almost impossible to find Schreier at all, he has to emphasize other advantages in addition to the 4-day week when applying.

These include, for example, payment above the standard pay scale, company pensions or regular company events.

However, the cases mentioned do not mean that the introduction of a 4-day week is generally not worthwhile for craft businesses.

"The agreed weekly hours are spread over four days, with the same wages," said Gerd Kistenfeger.

"It may well be an argument that skilled workers prefer such companies with such working models." Each business owner must decide for himself whether the measure is expedient for the respective company.

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Overall, the spokesman for the Chamber of Crafts in the Stuttgart region sees no generally applicable solution for the current shortage of skilled workers.

"After weighing all aspects, an employee decides whether he likes the world of work in industry or in the trades," he told

BW24

.

"This is evidenced by the many examples of people who have switched from one area to another, i.e. from craft to industry or from industry to craft."

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-08-04

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