ADespite all the crisis scenarios, the need for workers in Germany is growing and growing. According to the FAZ archive’s quarterly job radar, German companies announced or planned to create a total of 63,650 jobs during the first half of the year. That is more than twice as much as in the same period of the previous year and would normally speak for a real boom, especially since the reduction plans only add up to a good 10,500 jobs. In times of staff shortages, however, the vacancies are less and less a positive economic signal and more a warning sign of the shortage of skilled workers, which limits the growth that would be possible this summer if corona restrictions were lifted. Customers are already feeling this.
The airport operator Fraport is currently fighting against the system collapse together with Lufthansa and the federal police responsible for security at the major Frankfurt airport with increased deployment of personnel. The many summer travelers have to be guided through the ticket halls, security and passport controls and terminals. This is a labour-intensive task given the 200,000 passengers a day. Fraport wanted to hire 1,000 employees by the summer, but they are difficult to find. Despite ongoing recruitment, the company currently needs several hundred additional employees. It was even considered hiring temporary workers from Turkey. However, employees who work in airport security areas must first be checked by authorities, which takes six weeks.
Bottlenecks not only because of sick leave due to Corona
The staff who were cut or sent on short-time work during the pandemic have also often found jobs outside of the aviation industry. So the bottlenecks are not just due to the numerous sick leave reports due to Corona. Lufthansa is said to have canceled 6,000 flights in Frankfurt and Munich for July and August. To be on the safe side, because of the bottlenecks, she also lets her passengers come to the airport hours before departure or, alternatively, gives them a train ticket directly.
But rail traffic is also struggling with staff shortages, which cause annoying train cancellations. Both the edge of the platform and the passenger boarding bridges show that the planned increase in jobs is often primarily a sign of a shortage of skilled workers. With 22,000 jobs, Deutsche Bahn wants to create by far the most jobs in the evaluation for the first half of the year. The screw dealer Würth, which has grown faster than ever despite the pandemic, also wants to hire 4,500 employees, but mainly abroad. For example, the company is digitally upgrading its legendary sales department.
For the job radar, the FAZ archive takes into account media reports about plans by companies to create or cut jobs if 100 or more employees are affected. The tables therefore focus on larger employers, so that the entire labor market is by no means represented. However, experience has shown that the evaluation accurately reflects the trends, because even smaller companies, such as those in the catering trade, lack employees.
Here are the late effects of the pandemic. Because hotels and restaurants had to close, many workers switched to other industries because they were less affected by restrictions. The changers have looked for new jobs, especially in supermarkets or in logistics. The latter had to transport even more online orders to customers’ homes during the lockdown than they already had. Many former waitresses or other catering staff also switched to the healthcare industry, which was experiencing a particularly high workload due to the pandemic.
But the labor market is not a paradise with open doors for all employees. The French steel company Vallourec announced in May that it intends to close its plants in Germany. By 2023, 2,400 jobs will fall victim – most of them in North Rhine-Westphalia. The company makes seamless pipes for oil and gas fields and plans to move the business to Brazil. The entire industry is struggling with low margins, and the situation for Vallourec has been exacerbated by the increased energy and material costs in Germany. Around 2,000 employees at the Orsay fashion chain, which closed 130 branches in Germany in June, are likely to be hit even harder. The reason here is not a shortage of skilled workers, but a lack of demand from customers.
