Labour requirements in Germany 2006 to 2011 : demand, recruitment processes and bottlenecks from the perspective of enterprises

Abstract

"In academic and public circles, the topic 'skilled labour requirements' is being discussed not only intensively but often also controversially. The current report takes a look at the demand for labour in enterprises and attempts to identify possible bottlenecks on the labour market at the current time. On the basis of data provided by the IAB Establishment Panel and the IAB Job Vacancy Survey, the way in which establishment and employment structures have developed is analysed first, along with open jobs differentiated according to various partial labour markets. After that, various indicators that could give an indication of labour bottlenecks are considered. These may be, for example, difficulties in filling positions, the length of time needed to find staff, or the ratio between the unemployed and vacancies. Overall, results show that there is no general widespread lack of skilled labour in Germany at the current time. Nonetheless, it has been possible to identify certain occupations, regions and branches where tension on the labour market has increased. This applies, for instance, to occupations in the health and social sectors but also to the electrical sphere. At a regional level, shortages of skilled labour tend to emerge in the southern German states; when occupational branches are compared, there are mainly indications of shortages in individual areas of the service sector." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Kubis, A., Leber, U., Müller, A. & Stegmaier, J. (2013): Der Arbeitskräftebedarf in Deutschland 2006 bis 2011. Nachfrage, Rekrutierungsprozesse und Engpässe aus Sicht der Betriebe. (IAB-Bibliothek 339), Bielefeld: Bertelsmann, 95 p. DOI:10.3278/300805w