The new governing coalition in Germany wants to attract 400,000 skilled workers from abroad each year to tackle demographic imbalances and labor shortages in key sectors, problems that threaten to undermine recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
“The shortage of skilled workers has become so severe that it is dramatically slowing down our economy,” Christian Deer, head of the Free Democrats (FDP) parliamentary group, told WirtschaftsWoche.
“We can tackle the problem of an aging workforce with a modern immigration policy (…) We need to reach the target of 400,000 skilled workers from abroad as soon as possible,” Deer added.
German Chancellor Olaf Solz’s Social Democrats (SDP), the FDP and the Greens in the governing coalition have agreed to adopt a points system for skilled workers from non-EU countries and raise the minimum wage to 12 euros. to make the country more attractive.
The German Economic Institute estimates that Germany’s workforce will shrink by more than 300,000 this year, as more retired older workers than younger enter the labor market.
The gap is expected to widen further, reaching 650,000 in 2029, which means that from now until 2030 the German economy will be missing a total of about 5 million workers.
After decades of low birth rates and unequal immigration, the shrinking workforce is also a demographic bomb for Germany’s pension system, as fewer workers bear the cost of financing more retirees, who now have a longer life expectancy.
See all the news
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
.
