Making the case for a sustainable development in the skilled labour potential

Abstract

In this contribution on the shortage of skilled labour, the author makes the case for differentiating between short-term bottlenecks in the filling of vacant jobs on the labour market from the long-term phenomenon of demographic change. He sees the root of current problems above all in economic and structural factors, such as the financial crisis and the crisis of the Euro system. In the coming ten to fifteen years, however, the author expects a drop in the labour force potential of 10 per cent as a result of demographic change. This will lead to an increasing load on the pension and health insurance systems. For this reason he advocates a sustainable development of the labour force potential via immigration. "A fundamental reform of immigration and integration policies, which will open up an increase in the extent of immigration, an improvement in the qualification structures of migrants and better chances of integration into the labour market, is necessary if the labour force potential in Germany is to be stabilised. (IAB2)

Cite article

Brücker, H. (2011): Plädoyer für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung des Fachkräftepotenzials. In: Wirtschaftsdienst, Vol. 91, No. 9, p. 586-590.