Germany, which is home to the largest economy in Europe, is struggling with a labour shortage crisis affecting one-sixth of the professions, the Federal Labour Agency revealed.
According to the report by the Federal Labour Agency, 200 out of around 1,200 professions that were surveyed had labour shortages last year.
Such a number represented a significant increase compared to the 148 professions that reported labour shortages in 2021, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
As the Washington Post explains, service jobs in hotels and restaurants, bus divers, as well as jobs in metalwork are among those that have joined the list of professions having labour shortages.
The same notes that other professions where Germany is finding it difficult to fill in job positions are child care, nursing, automotive technology, and the construction industry. Moreover, Germany is also struggling to fill in job positions requiring truck drivers, architects, pharmacists, and information technology specialists.
Other professions are also expected to develop labour shortages potentially, and in order to keep the situation under control, the Agency said that it is keeping on check another 157 professions.
In addition to the above-mentioned, the Agency said that there is a mismatch between labour demand and available workers, revealing that only around 26 per cent of skilled job seekers were actively pursuing opportunities in fields experiencing shortages last year.
To address this issue, the German government has already started to take steps to attract skilled workers from outside the European Union.
German ministers are currently preparing to travel to Brazil to explore recruitment opportunities for caregivers.
In order to make it possible for more nurses from Brazil to reach Germany for work purposes, the Employment Minister and the Federal Foreign Minister of Germany will travel to Brazil this year.
During their visit there, the ministers are expected to reach an agreement with the authorities of Brazil that will allow qualified nurses to enter Germany under facilitated rules.
The German authorities have said that the country also plans to simplify its rules for Indian IT workers.
Earlier in February of this year, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said that his country wants to simplify the visa rules for Indian information technology experts who wish to work in the country.
Germany is consistently trying to recruit highly skilled workers from abroad, and the country has already announced some changes it plans to make to its Skille Workers Migration Act.
One of the changes is to make the Blue Card more accessible for more specialists holding a university degree.
Another change is that Germany wants to permit third-country nationals to work in Germany without having to go through the procedures for formal recognition of their qualifications and degrees.
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