As a consequence of the tighter financial situation, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has announced the prospect of cutting several thousand administrative jobs. “A total of up to 5,000 jobs could be saved by 2035,” said Söder before the CSU parliamentary group meeting that began on Monday in the Banz monastery in Upper Franconia Munich Mercury. “This results from the reduction of bureaucracy, fewer laws and, above all, the use of artificial intelligence in administration.”
The bottom line is that this shouldn’t mean a loss – because Söder wants to stick to the planned job increases for teachers and police officers. “We are also paying attention to new positions. Of course the promised expansion of the police and teachers is coming. Bavaria needs that,” he said. According to the coalition agreement, 9,000 new jobs are to be created in the school sector alone by 2028, including 6,000 new teaching positions and 3,000 new positions for administrative staff, social educators and school psychologists.
And the total number of police employees is expected to increase by 2,000 to more than 47,000 by 2028. “Our country should become even safer and more innovative. Therefore, the announced strengthening of the police, judiciary and education is needed,” said Söder. “But in other areas of administration, AI and digitalization offer real opportunities. We therefore want to set up a process to make administration leaner.”
Bavaria, on the other hand, is also fighting a growing shortage of teachers in schools – apparently with limited success so far. Therefore, the pressure on teachers to work less part-time could now increase. Söder mentioned several ideas: “We could consider linking family working hours to the age of the children. There is a difference whether a child is still in daycare or is of age. You can discuss whether civil servants go part-time right from the start or should not work full-time for a certain period of time. And whether a maximum period of part-time years is justifiable.” But there are also other clever and flexible ideas. Currently around 50 percent of the school staff work part-time. Basically, Söder said: “The trend is towards less and less work, more part-time work and a work-life balance. I doubt whether this will maintain our prosperity.”