Six-digit number of tradespeople missing
There is a shortage of 250,000 tradespeople in Germany. Around 20,000 training positions remain unfilled.

There is a shortage of 250,000 tradespeople in Germany. Many training positions remain unfilled. The shortage threatens the economy and Germany’s climate targets.
Craft businesses in Germany are looking for a six-figure number of employees. According to the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH), 150,000 vacancies are currently registered with the employment agencies. As not all companies report unfilled vacancies to the agencies, the association estimates that there is a shortage of 250,000 tradespeople.
Government sees climate targets at risk
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck plans to attend the opening of the trade fair on Wednesday, while Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to attend the top-level talks with German industry on Friday.
The lack of personnel is not only hampering economic growth, but is also jeopardizing the political goals of the German government, as not only trade officials have been warning for years. One example: There are around 43 million homes in Germany, and the aim is to make them completely climate-neutral by 2040. As a large proportion of the building stock is not yet energy-efficient, experts estimate that around two million homes will need to be converted every year.
„Renovating houses in an energy-efficient way, installing charging stations and solar roofs, building and maintaining wind turbines and much more,“ says the ZDH. „That’s what tradespeople do; they are indispensable for all these future tasks.“ Accordingly, the trades with the greatest shortage of skilled workers include several construction professions: according to the ZDH, these include plumbers and heating engineers, refrigeration engineers, roller shutter and sun protection technicians, as well as electrical engineers, electrical mechanical engineers, opticians, hearing acousticians and metalworkers.
18,800 training places unfilled
A good one million skilled crafts businesses with just under 5.6 million employees – around twelve percent of the total workforce – are registered in Germany. The skilled trades are even more important when it comes to vocational training. Craftspeople train around 360,000 apprentices, which, according to the ZDH, is 29 percent of all trainees. Last year, German tradespeople concluded 132,129 new apprenticeship contracts, 2,000 more than in the first year of coronavirus in 2020. However, around 20,800 training positions remained unfilled.
Source: Zeit.de