Businesses warn of impending skilled worker gap - Germany

Many German companies are struggling through tough economic times and have forced workers to put in fewer hours, but some firms warn that qualified staff are hard to find as they recruit ahead of an anticipated rebound.

At Trumpf, a family-owned company near Stuttgart in southwestern Germany, 80 percent of its 4,500 workers have been working reduced hours since July because demand for its industrial stamping and metal cutting machines has slumped. The firm's orders fell by more than a third in the 12 months period ending June 30.

Thanks to measures introduced by the German government to keep a lid on unemployment during its worst recession since World War II, Trumpf is paying its workers less for fewer hours, and the taxpayer is making up the rest so that employees still go home with a full pay packet.

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As Quoted from the article on thelocal - Labour crunch likely to follow recession
" The worst of the economic crisis came just a few months ago, and even though unemployment is still forecast to increase in early 2010, "there are still more job offers for engineers than candidates," according to Michael Stahl, who is in charge of training for the German metal and electronics federation Gesamtmetall. "
Would not know it by me, there seems to be a wall, glass ceiling, what ever. Can not seem to get past the gate keepers.

They just want an excuse to have an H1B visa program like in the US, so they can hire in Indian engineers at 1/2 the price of a native worker. The H1B workers live 12 to a house, and are essentially indentured servants while employed, their right to stay is subject to continued employment, so they don't ever cause any problems at work, like standing up for their rights, insisting upon decent medical care, over-time, or other benefits which large corporations hate to pay their workers, but are happy to lavish upon their top executives.

From what I see from my self-employed perspective, I for one can say it's 100% true that some terrific companies have trouble filling skilled roles that are really well-paid (even some that run just in English). Was even discussing it with one just hours ago! I get asked why they can't recruit Brits. It may be surprising in the current climate.......but it's actually true!

I puzzle with some of the younger graduate Brits and Eu nationals here who have really landed on their feet here (including TT'ers) about why this should be. We've concluded it's got a lot to do with location. Nobody's ever heard of places like Darmstadt (and it often doesn't look too appealing on first glance and it's a "here we speak German" town which clearly scares a lot of first-timers). Put the jobs in, say, Berlin or Brussels or Paris or wherever, and there'd be a long queue.