The German automotive industry continues to suffer from an acute shortage of skilled workers despite the industry’s crisis. On average, around 10,300 positions remained unfilled in the industry between July 2023 and June 2024, according to the Competence Center for Securing Skilled Workers (Kofa) of the employer-related Institute of the German Economy (IW) in a current study. Highly qualified experts in particular are still being sought
“Despite economically turbulent times, jobs remain unfilled in the automotive industry,” said study author Jurek Tiedemann. The need for skilled workers is still high due to the change in mobility and new technologies. “The industry urgently needs qualified personnel for digital and ecological transformation.” This also applies in economically turbulent times like now.
According to the study, there is a shortage of thousands of skilled workers in the automotive industry. (archive image)
Compared to the previous year, the skills gap in the industry has narrowed noticeably and has shrunk by almost a third, according to the researchers. For skilled workers who have completed vocational training, the number of unfilled positions increased by 7 percent to just over 3,400. In contrast, the number of experts with a university diploma or master’s degree has shrunk by 43 percent, but remains at a high level with more than 6,300 unfilled positions. Business economists, computer scientists and engineers are particularly in demand. There was also a lack of more than 500 specialists such as master craftsmen or business specialists.
The declining car production has so far had little impact on employment, according to the researchers. Although almost 27 percent fewer cars were built in Germany in 2023 than in 2014, the number of employees in the industry remained largely stable. In 2023, at 767,000, it was seven percent higher than in 2014. Since the peak in 2019, there has been only a minimal decline.
Volkswagen recently announced that it would no longer rule out redundancies and even plant closures due to low capacity utilization and high costs. The works council spoke of tens of thousands of jobs that are threatened at the core brand VW, which currently has around 120,000 employees. Several suppliers such as Continental and ZF have also announced that they will cut jobs.
