Decreasing number of professionally congested jobs.
The Federal Employment Agency (BA) has reported that the number of scarce professions, known as bottleneck professions, has decreased a little this year with 183 of the analyzed professions experiencing a shortage, which is 17 fewer than last year. However, the agency highlighted that the situation is still at a "very high level."
The decline in bottleneck professions is not unexpected, as per the BA, since the overall number of job vacancies is also starting to decrease. Andrea Nahles, the managing director of the Federal Employment Agency, emphasized that this is just a temporary trend and not a long-term one.
The most employment-intensive professions experiencing a shortage in 2023 were mainly in the care and health sectors, trades, the commercial vehicle industry, childcare and social pedagogy, technical professions in the IT sector, building planning, and the catering industry.
Compared to last year, chefs and technical support staff have joined the list of bottleneck professions. However, there has been some improvement for skilled workers in the construction sector, facade construction, and engineers in aerospace technology.
The BA also mentioned that 172 other job fields are being closely monitored even though they don't show a shortage currently. Moreover, they mentioned that every second job opening reported to them is now for a bottleneck profession. Interestingly, only 25% of the unemployed experts are searching for jobs in these scarce professions.
In its analysis, the BA evaluated around 1200 professional groups, considering six different factors to determine the bottleneck status. These factors include the duration of vacant positions, the profession-specific unemployment rate, and wage development.
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Despite the decrease in the number of bottleneck occupations, with 183 professionally congested jobs reported this year, which is 17 fewer than last year, the situation still remains at a "very high level." Interestingly, only a fraction of the unemployed experts, specifically 25%, are seeking jobs in these scarce professions.
The agency's analysis indicates that the 'Remains' of the 172 closely monitored job fields, even though they don't show a shortage currently, could potentially become bottleneck occupations at the 'Level' of critical shortages if not addressed properly.
