GERMANY: Skills lack could stall boom, industry warns

Industry has again warned that shortages in technology-oriented subjects threaten Germany's economic boom. The lack of specialists in maths, informatics, natural sciences and engineering appears to have reached a 10-year high in May.

It has led to calls for restrictions on the right to abode being eased for foreign graduates of German universities in these specialisms and foreign academics.

Germany's two leading industrial organisations, the Confederation of German Industry (BDI) and the Confederation of German Employers (BDA), maintain that the shortage of skilled labour in what is known as the MINT (short in German for mathematics, informatics, natural sciences and engineering) subjects is greater than it has been since a previous peak in 2001.

Thomas Sattelberger, who directs MINT Zukunft schaffen, a joint BDI/BDA campaign to boost these subjects in education, training and higher education, says that while German industry may be booming there is a serious lack of important staff totalling around 150,200 persons.

"Companies are especially eager to get hold of engineers," Sattelberg maintains. "The job market has been swept practically bare. Orders cannot be taken, and projects are being delayed. The result is losses in value added totalling billions. Companies regard the lack of specialist staff as one of the key risks economic development in Germany is facing."

In early 2010, the overall shortfall of specialists was put at under 40,000. But now, unfilled positions in engineering alone have soared to that level. Simultaneously, however, unemployment among engineers has also grown, from around 23,000 to 30,000. The figures the two organisations refer to are based on the statistics of the Federal Labour Agency. All in all, the statistics reveal that MINT graduate levels are well below the OECD average.

Sattelberg, who is also chief human resources officer for Deutsche Telecom AG, says that options for action to boost the supply of specialists are far from exhausted. "MINT education at pre-school and school level as well as in higher education has to be expanded and improved," he says. "We must succeed in recruiting more young women for MINT courses. And foreign graduates from German higher education institutions, many of whom have studied MINT subjects, ought to be given a permanent right of abode if they can find work here."

Three out of every five engineering students enrol for mechanical, process or electrical engineering programmes. The BDA has now issued a catalogue of requirements for these subjects and again stressed how important the bachelor courses are for industry. Bachelor courses are becoming increasingly popular, also thanks to the relatively good job prospects they offer.

Meanwhile, Federal Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen has suggested that the minimum income level foreign academics and other specialists require to obtain the right of abode in Germany be lowered from EUR66,000 (US$94,000) a year to EUR40,000. This proposal has already met with sharp criticism from the trade unions, who fear that such measures could be used as the thin end of a wedge to generally reduce salaries.

Von der Leyen also wants to see regulations slackened requiring that companies have to prove that they cannot find specialists in Germany before seeking staff abroad.