After two years of pandemic, it feels like a liberation. Finally back to the restaurant, to an open-air event or on vacation with some degree of carefreeness. But those who want to reclaim their old lives in the coming months could get frustrated. There is a lack of staff everywhere. To waitresses, security guards, flight attendants. These are the harbingers of an upheaval in the labor market that politicians and companies are sleeping through.
The staff is not only lacking in the places where the Germans urgently want to enjoy life again. And it is not only missing in sectors such as IT and care, where there has been a shortage for a long time. Suddenly, people are even looking for jobs that some people have already written off as victims of economic change, such as construction workers or hairdressers. Citizens see the future as bleak as ever because of inflation, war uncertainty and supply shortages. But the job market defies this doom and gloom: companies are reporting more vacancies than ever before.
At first glance, it seems as if some staff shortages are just a consequence of Corona. Restaurateurs, cultural organizers or airline bosses have thrown their people out. The ex-employees were looking for something else. But why don’t they come back now? This has partly to do with the upheaval that is affecting the professional world.
Millions of jobs from unpopular reforms
The balance of power in the labor market is changing – again. During the economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s, employees were able to get high wages because the companies urgently needed them. Then came mass unemployment and firms began to dictate terms more strongly. Precarious jobs increased, companies paid less collective wages.
Then, since the noughties, Germany has also managed to create millions of jobs through unpopular reforms. workers are in demand again. And now the baby boomers are retiring and tearing a hole. In the next ten years, one to four million people of typical working age will gradually be missing. Attention, unemployment!
The first logical consequence: companies have to do more to (their) employees. It’s no coincidence that restaurateurs, security companies or nursing homes are running out of people. In these professions, the work is often physically hard or in the evenings and at weekends – and this is usually poorly paid. These sectors must therefore at least pay better. And that will then force other economic sectors to rethink. Anyone who wants to continue to save costs with 450-euro jobs or keep employees docile with fixed-term contracts will be surprised – and rightly so.
However, better pay alone will not solve unemployment. Even if companies compete more for employees, there will simply be a lack of people. In order to change that, politicians and companies have to raise personnel reserves.
That starts at school. Too many young people stumble into life without school or professional qualifications. Anyone who, unlike in the past, decidedly takes care of their qualifications, is training additional specialists.
Clear out unfair tax system
There are also personnel reserves among many women, especially mothers. They could work more if some day care centers and after-school clubs didn’t close so early – and if there were more places at all. And enough educators so that parents can take their children there with a clear conscience. In addition, the government needs to clear out the tax and duty system. Hardly any other industrialized country deducts as much from the salary of the second wage earner in a marriage as Germany. No wonder that some only work part-time or stay at home.
There are even more ideas, such as motivating older people to work longer. The truth is, however, that the country’s personnel pool is limited. Germany can no longer shirk the realization that there will only be enough jobs available in the future if there is more immigration – otherwise the economy will shrink. We all pay dearly for migration skepticism.