According to information from entrepreneurs, the labor shortage is reducing business efficiency and revenues.

The crisis caused by the shortage of skilled labor has reached its peak in Germany, and almost half of German companies are affected by the lack of specialists, the Ifo Institute for Economic Research from Munich announced on Tuesday.

“In July, 49.7 percent of the surveyed companies said they were affected by the labor shortage,” the Ifo institute at the University of Munich announced. This is the highest level so far since 2009, when this institute began conducting this type of survey. According to information from entrepreneurs, the labor shortage is reducing business efficiency and revenues. “More and more companies have to limit their operations because they simply do not have enough staff,” said Stefan Sauer from Ifo.

According to experts’ estimates, this problem could become even more severe in the medium and long term. The greatest shortage of workers is recorded in the service sector, with as many as 64 percent of hotel and hospitality businesses affected. A similar situation exists in transport and freight transportation. In the manufacturing sector, the food processing industry is the most affected. In the construction sector, 39.3 companies complain about a shortage of workers, and the figure would be higher if construction companies could operate at full capacity, which is currently not the case due to a lack of materials. Traditionally, there is still a shortage of specialists in the IT industry and the automotive industry, as well as in healthcare.

An additional problem is the shortage of students in vocational schools for skilled trades. Every year, between 15 and 20 thousand training positions remain unfilled. The German government recently announced a change to the immigration law that would also allow the immigration of young people who are willing to train for one of the shortage occupations.

The social democratic-green-liberal government is also preparing a change to the asylum law that would allow young people whose asylum request has been rejected or who are waiting for a response to remain in Germany in the event of successful training. The Christian Democratic opposition strongly opposes this plan because it believes it would increase the motivation for illegal immigration.

Source: vecernji.hr