Study by the IW: Many training positions are vacant

A study by the German Economic Institute (IW) suggests that the shortage of skilled workers in Germany is partly “homemade”. Up to 40 percent of all training positions are currently unfilled.

According to a study by the German Economic Institute (IW), up to 40 percent of training positions in Germany remain vacant. The “Rheinische Post” reports in advance from a study by the Cologne economic researchers.

In 2021, a good 63,000 training positions or almost twelve percent of all positions could not have been filled with young people. However, this rate rises to almost 40 percent if those jobs are also taken into account “that are not reported to the employment agencies for a variety of reasons,” according to the employer-related institute.

“Raise potential in young people”

The shortage of skilled workers in Germany is therefore partly “homemade”. In the future, it will be important to leverage the potential that still exists among young people in order to combat the shortage of skilled workers, the newspaper quotes from the paper. Career advisers are called upon to make young people even more aware of the bottleneck occupations. In addition, applicants should be given even more support. For example, “an even more intensive promotion of mobility, personal care in our free time, through to offers for youth housing could help”.

The highest proportion of vacant training positions was in the sale of meat products (60.4 percent). According to the study, the number of unfilled training places was even greater than the number of training contracts concluded. Plumbers (38.9 percent), specialists in catering services (37.5 percent) and concrete and reinforced concrete workers (33.8 percent) also had a high proportion of vacant training positions.