Work
Unions: There is a risk of staff shortages in the public sector
View of a cell wing in the C wing of the Hamburg detention center. According to estimates by several trade unions, there is also an acute shortage of staff in the penal system. photo
© Christian Charisius/dpa
The baby boomer generation is retiring. The consequences are already clearly noticeable in the public sector. The shortage of staff is probably exacerbated by very moderate pay.
Several unions are facing massive problems because of an impending increasing Warned of a lack of staff in the public service, for example in the tax offices and in the penal system. “The wave of retirements of the baby boomer generation is already noticeable. It will intensify massively from 2028,” said the chairman of the German tax union, Florian Köbler, of the “Bild am Sonntag”. One problem is “unattractive working conditions in ailing offices with moderate pay”. Standard market salaries are needed to increase the number of tax officials. Koebler warned: “Without sufficient tax revenue, the state threatens to lose its ability to act.”
The chairman of the prison union, René Müller, also told the Sunday newspaper: “If the situation continues to deteriorate, we will no longer be able to do our state duties justice.”
A few days ago, the head of the civil servants’ association dbb had already warned of the consequences of an impending staff shortage. Although there is no threat of the state standing still, “it will rumble much more, more often and louder than now,” Ulrich Silberbach told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “If we don’t finally make progress with digitization and reducing bureaucracy, the imminent shortage of staff will extend processing times, worsen care ratios and significantly weaken state performance overall.”
According to dbb estimates, there are currently around 360,000 vacancies in the public sector. Around 1.3 million public sector employees will retire by 2030.