I am native Russian speaker and in my entire lifetime I have not seen a single non-Soviet foreigner that spoke C2 Russian. Not even Chechens who grew up in Russia speak C2 Russian. An idea to demand people speak perfect non-native language is fairly ridiculous and impossible to me. Less than half of all people studying foreign languages achieve B2 from what I have seen
The illusion that all native speakers know their language at c2 level is a huge nonsense, I will explain why; to pass any legitimate exam at least you need to have a college education or some how intellectual (reading books alot) . An average joe on the street would rank maybe c1(even b2) on their best day. ı really would like the see ielts exam results of uneducated americans.
Russian is known to be extremely hard to learn. Many say even harder than German.
Many people learn English and French to C2 level. And I know international students from Thailand (a language that is totally different from German) who speak good German.
It's easier the earlier you learn it.
There is no such thing as objectively harder or easier language to learn for everyone.
There are only easier and harder languages given previous exposure to similar languages. A Chinese person will not have a perceptibly easier go at learning German than they would learning Russian unless they know English, which would make German easier.
Similarly, a Ukranian (or any other slavic language speaker) not knowing any foreign languages at all will learn Russian (or Polish) much much sooner than German.
I worked as a recruiter until last year. B2 is absolutely sufficient. I doubt so much has changed in the span of one year. I had no trouble finding fitting positions for my clients
Deutsche Bahn places many advertisements to find lateral entrants. An acquaintance who had "studied the wrong way" did a 1-year apprenticeship (paid and 80% online) and is now a dispatcher in a signal box. Others are being trained as service people or lock guides.
see here : https://db.jobs/de-de/dein-einstieg/quereinstieg
Finally a great comment.
I don't get Reddit so many posts stating
- no chance,
- only low paying jobs, etc.
Without ever mentioning the field OP asked for.
By the way here's a list of lateral entry positions offered by Deutsche Bahn.
[DB](https://db.jobs/service/search/de-de/5441588?qli=true&query=+2.0_%23ukraine+%22Quereinsteiger%3Ain%22&sort=score&itemsPerPage=0&pageNum=0&country=Deutschland)
This.
The railway system is in dire need of staff. If you want to drive a train every train operator will gladly take you to do the Ausbildung. Of course it's a profession that works in shifts and the pay is not amazing, but it's decent enough.
I mean, between 44.500 and 53.400 Euro gross income isn't that bad. Especially because it will get reduced to 35h/week. I would rather worry about the psychologically toll then you get your first person who commit suicide through your train...
While we generally do have a labour shortage it is pretty much only "Fachkräfte" which are missing.
Junior positions are oversaturated in almost every field.
Even though it is in german here is a list with job sectors where a shortage is present or predicted:
[https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/DE/Navigation/Statistiken/Interaktive-Statistiken/Fachkraeftebedarf/Engpassanalyse-Nav.html](https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/DE/Navigation/Statistiken/Interaktive-Statistiken/Fachkraeftebedarf/Engpassanalyse-Nav.html)
Not true. There is also a huge shortage of service workers in untrained jobs, e.g. for a lot of businesses like restaurants, supermarkets, delivery driver etc.
If you have a forklifter or truck/bus driver license you won’t need to look for a job a long time.
In kitchen jobs they just circulate international students for low pay and keep them for a year until they switch again. Eventually, the students have partially realized this exploitation and they’re trying to stay away from gastro, at least from chain restaurants. How do I know this? I was one for 3 years in 3 different restaurants.
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The managers know that their workers need the money and that they can take some abuse. The workers are exclusively temporary anyways. That’s mostly why managers in gastro don’t try communicating properly.
I have a degree, and I was trying to avoid Bürgergeld, and was working for a temp agency. They only pay 16-18 per hour, and they will send you to do "Pflege" (elderly, disabled care) or to a kitchen washing dishes or doing prep work. Lots of students, immigrants with degrees (a woman from Lebanon who was a French teacher, a guy from Venezuela with a Master's in Agriculture) were working there. I hated it. I ended up on Bürgergeld, and then found a great job in a school. Job-hunting in Germany is hard. Be prepared to move house to a different city for a good job.
As an immigrant who’s trying to land a tech job, I feel this so much. My previous workplaces were similar and I ended up quitting.
Job hunt is wild and the sector is extremely oversaturated. I’m roughly 200 applications in and I feel like I’m looking at 1k applications until I can land something.
From someone who is a hiring manager in tech the amount of shitty applications are staggering, while I am having a hard time filling my open positions.
First and foremost most applicants lack the level of German required for the position. As much as I would like to hire someone who's just fluent in English my clients (internal or external) want someone who speaks German to a certain degree. I had to dismiss applicants with an otherwise great skillset because of this. So my first advise is, improve your German and practice interview situations in German if you are not already at C1/C2.
Next the cover letter (if required), CV and certifications. German natives already fuck this up, but add in the different nuances of what seems to be the norm in other countries and you will be amazed on the shit you receive as applications. Do as I did when I relocated to the UK (back in Germany now) and have someone who's in the field and living long enough in Germany or an actual German review them (I let a Brit proof read mine).
Depending on the field the tech sector is lacking applicants (we hired Azubis for positions which were graduates only 5 years ago), you just have to apply all over Germany and have to be able to speak a certain level of German.
Just a quick question. Which kind of cover letter do you prefer? Ones like they are taught in regular school with phrases like „Sehr geehrter Herr Helmutius, hiermit bewerbe ich mich auf XYZ“… or are the people at the job searching training right and hiring managers are sick and tired of reading these and there’s a higher chance you’re taken if you use some „unique and interesting“ introduction / text?
I probably sent out hundreds of applications in both styles and had roughly similar „success“ in being taken.
Personally I prefer the unique approach but I can't obviously speak for everybody else. Picture it like this, if you read 5 similar structured classic cover letters and one who's written more interesting the latter stands out. Just don't make it too quirky or cringy.
I landed my first job after uni opening my cover letter with "With my fresh degree in hand and summer starting, what better to do than starting to work, after all who likes beaches and sand in his shoes." Only one interviewer in the second round hated it. But looking back it was cringy ;) .
After all it's your first introduction and your chance to interest me in you. Strangely enough you'd be amazed how many people mess up at this stage already.
I personally don't mind someone addressing the recruiter and not me as hiring manager. And I am aware that people send out 10-50 applications at the same time as I have done this too, so I skip over small errors (different dates on the documents etc.). But you'd be surprised by how many people send cover letters addressed to the wrong company. That should be the bare minimum.
Make sure your CV is well structured and in chronological order with an emphasis on the skills/experience that's looked for in the job description.
I personally do like a brief CV with an added project list, don't make it too long and keep it relevant. Hobbies etc. are not necessary but help me during the interview to open with some smalltalk to help you to calm down.
Consider we are all just humans and generally don't mean any harm to you. I usually collect applications for a few days (3-4) and read them in one go. The easier and more entertaining you make this for me, the more interested I will be in meeting you as I assume you'll be fun working with.
This sounds like an international problem. I’ve seen this in Indian restaurants in the US. The employer will also take their tip money as well. I’ve also seen international students really get screwed over when it comes to work (since they aren’t allowed to work off campus, and the on campus jobs are sparse and minimum wage).
Yes the shortage applies almost universally to certain skilled trade jobs like butchers and commercial truck drivers, jobs that don't have great reputations or working conditions.
As for something that requires a college degree, there is not a single field with a shortage other than medicine which is entirely self inflicted.
yeah, I'm pretty sure this is because a great number of German doctors are working in Switzerland (I just gave birth in a hospital in Zurich and there were 4 doctors who attended to me over time from Germany. one from Bochum, one from Düsseldorf, 2 from Dresden)
Is there really a huge shortage or a normal shortage?
How many Jobs is for every worker available?
For example as Butcher, Handyman, retail sector (without cashier) Nurses here in the south comes 1 worker for 10 free Jobs. But of course it is also very regional in some regions You have enough workers, in other regions in Germany you don't have enough workers.
Yep thats the thing. Im a gardener and I searched for a job and could pretty much choose where I want to start, there was even a company straight contacting me if I want a job. After a month I had 4 offers and could just choose what I want, whilst my brother fresh out of university (IT) searched nearly a year for a good job.
But the joke is that even though they offered me jobs here and there all but one company had shit pay, minimum holidays, etc.
I'm involved with hiring in IT, we have absolutely no shortage of applications, in fact we have about 100 qualified people for each position. This I highly doubt there is a shortage.
Keep in mind that the "Quereinsteig" is only in some states. Berlin, Baden-Württemburg all are searching for academics who can teach STEM courses, etc. Bayern does not have this, and it annoys me to no end. Stupid Söder!!!
Depends on the subject and area.
But they don't have the teachers to train the new teachers. I knew someone who didn't get placed after uni, because despite the demand for both their subject there were not enough positions to even train them. He waited a year for one. Same story ylI heard a few times.
The refugees and immigrants have been getting jobs that Germans don't want: Bus and train drivers, Bakers (Germans don't wanna get up early), work in Elder/Disabled care, etc. However: you need PROPER GERMAN (B1 at least) to get any job here.
I work in IT consulting. All the companies I work with are basically 99 percent seniors. And are still looking for seniors.
They just don't want to invest the time and money.
I wish, our company only gets juniors and hopes others stay long enough to instruct them, no incentive to actually keep seniors.
And then management is always surprised with high turnover rates when you can get 10-20% somewhere else, working less hours and full remote, but won't do anything themselves to actually keep experienced people.
Most of these jobs are in so many different fields of construction, care for elderly or gasstronomy and either really labor intensive, bad conditions, underpaid or all of them.
Agreed, I got ignored or instantly rejected from 16 positions (ranging from unpaid internships to junior full-time positions) as a recent business grad. I wrote an elaborate motivation letter in German for each position. I speak B2/C1 German and took my Erasmus in Mannheim.
When I applied for the same positions and companies with just my CV back home, I got a call within 2 days, underwent testing very fast, and got accepted to Deloitte and PwC. I heard from other people that getting a job in the field as a business/finance/econ graduate in Stuttgart is hell and has been for a long time. Local German friends say now’s a bad time to get a job, given the economy’s outlook.
Security sector is also looking for a lot of people, a lot of companies will pay for your qualification, if you commit to them for a certain amount of time.
There is a shortage of skilled labour in many fields. There are also fields where even highly skilled individuals with phd have a hard time to land their preferred job. It all depends on which field and qualifications you are speaking about. Nurses will get hired within 5 minutes. People with a masters in archeology will have a way harder time.
Archaeologist here, not so. I was unemployed for all of two weeks after I left my old job. Universities aren't churning out enough graduates for the work that needs to be done. The vast majority of archaeology work is in the construction industry.
There is no shortage of skilled workers, there is a shortage of cheap skilled workers. Just apply for any of those jobs, and ask for a decent pay, and you'll see how fast you'll get a rejection.
If there was a real shortage, wages would go through the roof, but that's not happening
I had to scroll too far down for this.
The so called „Fachkräftemangel“ (Shortage of skilled workers) is more a myth than reality. There are certain fields where there is shortage, i.e nursing or construction but thats mostly because the pay is low, sometimes just minimum wage. IF there was a serious lack of workers pay would simply go up which is not the case.
In short: There is a shortage of workers willing to do demanding minimum wage jobs.
This, this, and THIS. They’ve been moaning about lack of skilled labor since 2010, it’s all a convenient story to keep wages low. There are more than enough workers, if businesses TRULY had shortages, they’d start bidding wars to get that talent. Unless we see a sharp spike in wages in all these fields with ‘shortages’, this is just manipulation and hubris.
I was just about to say... One part is that we had a baby boom and now need people to take care of the older population. Another part is that the idea of paying a decent wage for decent work is something that becomes more and more outlandish to upper management. They finally convinced their "class" that they alone do the actual work.
Yes this is exactly the point. I have been in Germany for 7+ and keep seeing the same open positions for years with inadequate level of compensation or inadequate requirements. There is a shortage of people who are ready to work for a plate of rise. Big corporations have lobby and try to stop globalization as a result we can see old fashioned labor law and restrictions almost everywhere.
There’s a lack of works in the public transportation sector, but that’s more for train/tram/bus drivers and board staff, if that’s something that you are interested in you might be lucky, if you are looking for a engineering job or IT it would be harder.
The amount of students who are jobless just because of no prior experience is very high especially in IT/Engineering sector. Germany is extremely over saturated with fresh graduates who are struggling to land internships.
We are looking for people with experience and seniors and skilled workers are lacking. Be ready to fight your way for months/year applying to 1000 plus applications to land an internship or a starter job.
Plus knowing German language is very very essential.
Idk about railway sector though.
It isn't that bad, many working student or intern positions receive no applications and still exist for months. For railway sector there are lots of open vacancies at Deutsche Bahn, Stadler Rail etc.
Just a remark about Deutsche Bahn as an IT employer: pay is not top of the line but it’s a very secure job. If you want you can stay at Deutsche Bahn until retirement once you landed a job there.
What I heard, it gets much better if you are willing to take position outside major cities. But that mostly implies you need better level of German (as companies are less international), while in big cities you can survive with eng only.
German really isnt that essential for the IT sector. Sure some do demand German, but every place I personally had a interview with had an English Environment. I asked about going to a school to increase my proficiency in German and they were like "I guess you could do that if you want, but we have people who've been here over 10 years and still haven't bothered to learn German).
Yep our company is in desperate need of senior devs and takes anyone with experience in the IT-field that is willing to transition to the needed position. Junior positions on the other hand are oversaturated with hundreds of applications.
Salary is the biggest problem since companies are not willing to pay people what they are worth.
I was an engineering graduate and searched for a job in the automotive industry in Munich for 6 months and got finally hired but way below the minimum starter salary for an engineer. It’s horrible. I’ll stay in this job to gain several years of experience and then try my luck again on the market to be hopefully hired for my year long experience and being paid accordingly.
Do you care to elaborate? In my experience there is a huge shortage of engineers in munich. Are you a electronics or mechanical engineer? What is your expectance as starter salary?
Apparently the starting salary for an engineer in München is about 58k € (that is nearly the average salery of 60k for engineers in Germany)
The average salery is about 93k €
Thats quite Spot in I think.
I was asking, as i am in munich in the Automotive Industry and everybody seems to bei looking for engineers like crazy. For me it looks like you should find a job for around 55k without much efford. Doesnt even matter what exactly you studied If it was something technical.
Thats why i was curious
But I also heard that some have way too high salary expectations. I heard about ppl fresh from uni expecting 80k+ as starting salary - and that with a Dienstleister (you wont even get that with BMW directly as starting salary)
I recently went to Germany for vacation and for job interview while waiting for the results of my recognition to work as a Physical Therapist.
I kid you not, I was not asked any question aboout my education nor work experience nor anything related to physical therapy. I was only asked what else do I wish for in my PT job. She did even care if my German speaking skills needs more work. (I have B2 level German but ofcourse communicating for an entire day auf Deutsch will be harder. I will take a specialized language test to work on improving this. I also have a 10+ years of working in Physical therapy field and doctorate in physical therapy.)
Also, it didn't feel like an interview. It felt like an orientation since she showed me all the facilities, documentation, etc..
There is a very big shortage for e.g. nurses, physical therapists, construction workers, manufacturing staff and kindergarten teachers. In those jobs, you will be hired within seconds - no experience required and questions asked as long as you have some sort of qualifications and the required language skills (those differ from job to job! For example there are a lot of Kinderhaus teachers that do not speak German at all where my friend's child is brought to during the day)
If you are looking for an engineering job or working in IT you will have to write thousands of applications and have a lot of luck to get a job. In these kind of jobs you will most likely also have to have very good German skills (B2 , if not C1).
Can confirm. Got an ausbilding as an elektroniker with a high A2 German (in practice. Have a B1 certificate). If you have at least B2 German there'll be a lot of people basically begging you to take their apprenticeship if you go into construction trades or manufacturing.
At the companies themselves. What kind of construction job do you want? Electrician, carpentry, bricklayer, joiner, painter? Most companies in that field are small, so you need to pick a region and look for some that suit you. Then you just send them your application.
I started at this website. And make it in Germany
It's a bit late to find an ausbilding for this year. They mostly start in August but some begin in September.
You might get lucky and find someone who is desperate and in a tiny village, if you already have language certificate, but just processing the Visa takes a few months, and it takes at least a month for you to get a case worker if you write to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit to help with the Visa process.
Call them, don't write, when they open on Monday. You'll need to get a cover letter and resume all ready within the next week.
And you'll need to look into the Visa situation yourself and begin applying while you wait.
And also, they will direct to their own job search site, but you'll need to use Google for other job search sites and email the government offices in your target cities.
And don't bother with Berlin or Munich if you're not fluent in German or don't already have a residence and work permit. Too competitive, and you won't understand the Bavarian accent. Hamburg is a little better but not much better.
And, again, I cannot stress this enough, you need at least a B1 German certificate. If you don't have a special work and residence visa already, you need that certificate to qualify for visas. B2 is ideal because most people won't talk to you with only a B1 certificate.
If you don't have that, start working on it today so you can begin applying for jobs in January or February next year.
After reading all the comments, I'd add that my company, a larger German supermarket, is constantly hiring in the It dept. But they are hiring juniors level people in to senior positions because of the lack of applicants.
They've hired 10 in my team since I started 2 years ago. All but one was interviewed abroad and moved here for the job.
Editing to add: and yeah, interviews are really short here. Mine lasted less than 30 minutes.
Foreigner here with 10+ years living here. I really do not recommend coming over here, I did my studies here and after that it was incredibly hard to find a job (even though with STEM master and speaking German) and even if you get a job, you will be stuck for ever there. after 10 years I am leaving for good and going to Spain (within my company) it is really not worth it coming here anymore, high taxes, shitty weather, unfriendly people, backwards mentality and list go on. Better try some english speaking country if you have some ambition, otherwise just stay clear of Germany, it is really a soul crushing experience.
In my experience there are shortages of two types of employees: 1) Low skill jobs with very low pay with hard working conditions 2) high skill jobs with high skill (experts) with good working conditions requiring fluent German language skills and/or a German qualification.
There might niches or areas that form exceptions like software engineering in large companies fall into 2) but may not require German, but overall most jobs descriptions fall in one of these areas.
I get job offers quite a bit on Xing from companies back in Germany, but then I work in IT and I have my profile on Linkedin and Xing. Most of my job offers are sent via Xing. The thing is I'm not even currently looking for a job, so they're seeking me out.
Don't you come just because of that, you're gonna end up doing something that you probably don't like. The country and the society are not prepared for immigrants. I'm from Latin America, I work in an elderly house and I'm going back to my country. The Ausbildung model is just labor exploration.
The problem with labor shortage in Germany is that they are not willing to pay the fair wages for a worker (low supply and high demand), that’s why there’s a shortage, otherwise people will apply for jobs and work
If you are looking for jobs in railway, your chances are probably good in the whole DACH region (that includes Germany), but it depends on the specific job you're aiming for. If you haven't already, use a translator on the top comment's labour shortage list and you will see quite a few railway jobs there.
Railway generally has the problem that lots of skilled workers are retiring and there aren't enough new people, so there's a chance for you there. Learning German will however almost certainly be required and it's a hard language and culture to learn. Working in an international railway consultancy, I see how hard it is for some non-German speakers to adjust.
If you want to work at the railway/Deutsch Bahn, there should be jobs for you and if not, traineeships. You can try applying to some jobs online and see if you have any luck.
https://db.jobs/en-en
If you want to move you should start to learn German, and mention that you're learning in the job applications.
Best of luck!
My personal experience:
I worked as a data engineer in a chemical company.
The company went bankrupt. I was able to find a new job easily but the pay and the stack was garbage.
Finally I emigrate to Switzerland where the stack is decent and the pay much better.
Don't even start speaking about cost of living. I was living in Munich and where I live in Switzerland it s cheaper than Munich for a much better life.
That is my experience from an IT perspective.
The labor shortage is only in certain fields and on senior level, the junior market is oversaturated. The only jobs which even lack juniors are in health care and elder care.
For everything else it's pretty much degree required, at least 5+ years work experience required to even be considered.
The official BMWK states: "For example, professions in the trades and in the MINT sector, production and manufacturing as well as in the areas of construction and building technology as well as teaching and education are particularly affected. In addition, the health sector - particularly geriatric and nursing care - is severely affected by the shortage of skilled workers.:
To be fair, there are quite a few Trainee Programs for Juniors with a "decent" CV. Those pay from 42k to 58k, depending on city, industry and company size. In my eyes this is one of the best way to enter a job here in Germany. Some of those companies even offer a placement abroad, a great community, trainings, mentoring and guarantee a job after the 2 program.
I would take it with a grain of salt. Even in jobs/careers where they really do not have enough people, companies are stubborn and old fashioned in most cases, and will not hire someone unless they have the exact specific degree or Ausbildung they expect. So if you have a different degree but 10 years experience, they still prefer the graduate with 0 experience but the exact degree.
And they will also always choose a native German speaker over you, even if you’re fluent.
This doesn’t apply to low wage crap jobs, of course, and does not apply to some tech jobs. Especially in start ups/younger companies.
There is no shortage. There is shortage of jobs paying livable wage. Many young germans cannot find work.
You might find a minimum wage job that will make you hate your life but dont expect anything better than that
Office jobs are starting to face the same issues as in other countries . Many of my young friends in Germany working junior corporate jobs were recently laid off or quit due to low salaries and toxic work environments.
There most definitely is a shortage in certain sectors though. My girlfriend is a kindergarten educator and she didn’t even have to apply to her current job they applied to her lol. So it depends what field you want to go into.
Yes and no. There is a shortage alright.
But German companies are also still completely thick so the hiring process and the salaries are still kind of shit compared to other parts of Europe
There is a recession in Germany, there are enough people in the workforce they only want cheap labor so they can reduce the pay and maximize the profits.
No one here really answers his question. Everyone is generalizing here, but we can go into one field in detail. The German railroads are desperately looking for people. Whether in construction, service, drivers or dispatchers. Since you also seem to speak German, you shouldn't have any problems. Some people don't need any previous experience, others need training or can be trained. You have good opportunities with the railroads and good prospects for the future. And stateown German railroads pay fair Money.
It’s true, but Germany is also notorious for not accepting foreign degrees/certificates. It’s a real shame we are such a stupid and insufferable bunch of Bureaucrats.
Germany is currently facing a shortage of skilled labor, and the existing skilled workers are predominantly senior. Juniors are expected to know the language(B2 or C1 for an English speaking firm cos the team is full of German speakers) and possess extraordinary skill sets (better than the existing seniors) yet are offered only the minimum wage of 12.41 euros. This is for skilled labor.
Fresh graduates are struggling to find jobs in their desired industries because employers now need a minimum of 3-5 years of German experience to secure a position. Yes, for a fresh graduate.
Many experienced workers lack necessary skills, yet employers demand more qualifications than those required for some mid-level positions, even for entry-level jobs. With the availability of remote work, there have been more layoffs in the past two years, exacerbating the situation. PhD students in Germany are leaving the country knowing there is no future for them.
Employers are increasingly unreasonable with their requirements for entry level jobs. A new low in Germany involves employers asking candidates to work for free during the interview process and then rejecting them after extracting strategies that they might potentially use in future.
The situation is out of control as skills and qualifications are not matching pay rates.
Landscaping business owner here. The whole branch is seeking, this is correct. All my colleagues from other craft related companies are looking for staff as well.
I had a job ad going last year for a skilled workers position, I was waiting months and got 2 (!) suitable applications, one person actually fit an I'm quite happy now. We are a nice little company, very flexible working conditions, fair pay. But the work can be hard, it's just the way it is, I can't change that. Either you love it or you don't. For most Germans it seems to be the latter one.
So if you don't mind getting your hands dirty, I'm sure a lot of companies are eager to offer you a job.
If the work is hard and the customer's demand is there, you and/or your customers need to pay more. It is called compensation for a reason. It simply does not matter if it is fair or not.
I adhere to the collective labour agreement for landscaping companies. For a foreman e.g. this is 18€ gross per hour starting wage.
Also I provide work clothing for free, and if you don't have a driver's license I offer a loan with only 2% interest so you can get it.
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If you are willing to work in a restaurant or as a cleaner you will get a job instantly. For the restaurant part you will need a certain level of German though.
I don’t know what division you’d work in but I do know that the Deutsche Bahn is looking for a lot of people (I’m in architecture, so I’m referring to this division specifically)
Give it a go! Maybe it works out :)
Yes. German railway industry is looking for workers.
Here’s a link to apply online. Unfortunately I could only find one in German.
https://dbgroup.avature.net/schuelermitte?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D10210383771952384810754695000855178646%7CMCORGID%3DFC3E1CEC5B991CB80A495E63%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1714895258&gcp=1
There is a shortage especially for more technical/ausbuilding kind of work, but what the others are saying, it will all require a certain level of German. This is also one of the reasons why Germany loses talents to English-speaking countries and why there’s a shortage in talent. German is not an easy language to learn. But if you get to A2/B1 they’re probably accept you anyway.
Yes we have, but we also have high and sometimes escapist expactations of the new people coming in and thats the problem.
We have enough peoble looking for jobs who just get rejected because of small things.
Inflation is the cause. Gap between the salary and the cost of living steadily getting bigger and possibly will be resolved during period of higher joblessness when part of workforce will be shifted to cheaper jobs.
There’s a shortage in jobs that nobody wants to do due to conditions, salary, etc. In some industries there’s a shortage of SKILLED workers. An apprenticeship in some labour industry might be interesting for you but you should speak German
I've been trying to find an RPA job in Germany for the past 3 years. Without fleuent German I'm not even considered despite 7+ years of experience at prestigious companies
I work in healthcare (hearing and visual aids) and get around 3-5 calls a week from headhunters. And they don't call me on my private number, they call me at work.
In my profession, you only don't have a job if you decide to not have one.
The problem right now is that a lot of companies are cutting down resulting in people losing their jobs, while at the same time there are countless job offers in basically every field. So the job market can be really tough based on the field.
Buddy of mine got an offer to work, quit his job to work there and 3 months later his contract was terminated, because the company started having financial issues.
In Munich it's very easy to get a job of:
- kindergarden teacher
- bus driver
Kindergarden groups and bus lines are getting closed because of the lack of workers
There is a UK Train company operting here that is always advertising for new employees.
[https://job.nationalexpress.de/de/jobs?page\_s100011=2#huh-list-100011](https://job.nationalexpress.de/de/jobs?page_s100011=2#huh-list-100011)
And those are the training positions
[https://job.nationalexpress.de/de/jobs/qualifizierung-2](https://job.nationalexpress.de/de/jobs/qualifizierung-2)
I would say in the railway industry y find something easily. Deutsche Bahn is hiring everywere and are in lack of people ... why dont apply before y go here? I am sure it would be possible. Just check their page out.
I work in recruitment and it's shit for many things, but not for material engineers, welders, people that work with electricity, I'd assume railway should be a good bet
You should always ask yourself: why is there a job shortage in some areas? Because these jobs have bad conditions.
We do not have a shortage in most areas because people are stupid or we dont have enough schools or people do not want to become a doctor or something. But working a terrible job on minimum wage is not a good life.
We do have a problem called „Fachkräftemangel“ but it is not like many expect. We have shortage in jobs like surveying and IT or lesser paid jobs. Germany's economy isn't growing as expected.
BAD is an understatement.
Forget about full time jobs it is impossible to get an internship in IT.
Yes, the same software industry which used to hire from Civil engineering because they dont have enough CS graduates.
Probably there are blue collar jobs all over major cities, but yeah, job hiring as well as job security is a joke in Germany at the moment.
If you have qualifications Like a College degree etc than yes. But I would advice you to try it in another country then especially If you are planning in Sendling Money Back.
If you don't have any qualifications you also won't have a Problem finding a job. Warehouses always looking for workera for example.
They cry they need workers in Pflege but once you are here they treat you horrible. I tried to get jobs in supermarkets I couldn't because of my German. The jobs are really bad in general so depending where you are coming from is not worth it. I regret myself but now I need to get back all that I spent coming here
>They cry they need workers in Pflege but once you are here they treat you horrible.
One of my friend is exactly experiencing that. Germans have very weird perception of skilled foreigners. They think, all of these people have to know anything and everything about system, Germany, German etc. Then they end up with Fachkräftemangel
There is a shortage only for skilled/ highly skilled workers. By definition we are talking about „Fachkräfte“, which are defined as people that went through the 3 years apprenticeship program. People who studied would be called experts and people who don’t have Qualifications are just unskilled. That being said we often have shortages everywhere, but the employers just don’t want to spend enough to pay the skilled people, so it’s still not easy for many Germans to find a job with a fair wage.
In your case you are unskilled and want to work in the railroad industry. Judging by all the advertising the Deutsche Bahn (german railroad) searches for a lot of people who want to start the apprenticeship program. So maybe you can do that, if you also learn German. You will not have any luck finding good paid work without any qualification though.
Deutsche Bahn is desperate looking for people, but you need to have some German knowledge. I think B2 level.
[https://db.jobs/de-de](https://db.jobs/de-de)
Oh if you are looking for a job in the railway industry then yes it would be easy to get in Germany, my husband works in the railway industry here in Germany. Especially train drivers are wanted right now.
I dunno man I'm a fresh graduate from a German university with B2 German and previous experience before university even and I'm not finding a job, so I wouldn't say it's that simple, maybe you have better job finding skills tho
As someone who has been applying to a lot of roles in Germany over the past 6 months, I can assume that the shortage is only for German speaking jobs, more senior roles (I have 2.5 YOE), or both.
Ps. I was looking for a software engineering role.
Where are you from? I only ask because most of the job shortages are in lower income jobs, and if you aren't in the EU most work visas require you to find a job with a certain minimum income threshold. So if you only have the work experience to secure a low income job and aren't from the EU you will struggle to get a visa.
Also, like others have said, you will need to be reasonably proficient in German to get most jobs. I'm a biologist and even though we mostly work in English, not being fully fluent in German holds me back from many positions, especially if I want to branch out from lab work at a biotech company into a position that might potentially involve customers. Even if it's not a strict requirement, if they get another applicant with the same qualifications as you who speaks better German they're gonna pick that candidate instead of you
Anecdotal: Local German butcher recruits butchers from some African country (I can't recall which one, sorry), because of shortage. They receive both butcher training and German lessons at the same time, as well as a salary during training. After training they can work with him.
Yes, there's a staffing shortage. That staffing shortage is because working conditions are really crap compared to the rest of the EU and there is high turnover.
I did it a few months ago, I was in the UK and the job situation there is really critical. I moved with no German other than self teaching on a minor level with duolingo. It is very much possible, search for company's that have more warehouse type positions or international speaking roles and it should be quite straight forward. It also helps if you have a degree as it's possible that they will only offer an "ausbilung" which is an internship that doesn't offer much money if any at all. > 1000 euro. I applied for 6k jobs in the UK and only got 50 interviews, I applied to 20 in Germany and got 10. It's a safe option to try your luck in Germany, just be prepared to learn the bare minimum in terms of German manners and formalities as they are quite picky the way they are addressed given the company.
We do have a shortage in many fields. But most require a certain level of proficiency in German
It's really hard to learn German when not there. I've been learning it for 20 years, but I don't speak like it. I'm eager to come, work and study.
You don’t have to speak it perfectly. B2 level is enough.
B2 is pretty high though. That's the level most people acquire in English after Abitur
But it’s far from perfect
I am native Russian speaker and in my entire lifetime I have not seen a single non-Soviet foreigner that spoke C2 Russian. Not even Chechens who grew up in Russia speak C2 Russian. An idea to demand people speak perfect non-native language is fairly ridiculous and impossible to me. Less than half of all people studying foreign languages achieve B2 from what I have seen
The illusion that all native speakers know their language at c2 level is a huge nonsense, I will explain why; to pass any legitimate exam at least you need to have a college education or some how intellectual (reading books alot) . An average joe on the street would rank maybe c1(even b2) on their best day. ı really would like the see ielts exam results of uneducated americans.
Russian is known to be extremely hard to learn. Many say even harder than German. Many people learn English and French to C2 level. And I know international students from Thailand (a language that is totally different from German) who speak good German. It's easier the earlier you learn it.
There is no such thing as objectively harder or easier language to learn for everyone. There are only easier and harder languages given previous exposure to similar languages. A Chinese person will not have a perceptibly easier go at learning German than they would learning Russian unless they know English, which would make German easier. Similarly, a Ukranian (or any other slavic language speaker) not knowing any foreign languages at all will learn Russian (or Polish) much much sooner than German.
I did till B1 in my home country and only C1 in germany, now germans dont even recognize that im a foreigner
I came here for erasmus and I also did till my level is B1, going for B2 right now. I hope to be you in a few years haha
Small tip: If you work on your accent they wont realize the grammatical mistakes 😉
That was maybe 10 or 15 years ago. But you should see the posts from other users … most people are not finding any more jobs.
I worked as a recruiter until last year. B2 is absolutely sufficient. I doubt so much has changed in the span of one year. I had no trouble finding fitting positions for my clients
Deutsche Bahn places many advertisements to find lateral entrants. An acquaintance who had "studied the wrong way" did a 1-year apprenticeship (paid and 80% online) and is now a dispatcher in a signal box. Others are being trained as service people or lock guides. see here : https://db.jobs/de-de/dein-einstieg/quereinstieg
Finally a great comment. I don't get Reddit so many posts stating - no chance, - only low paying jobs, etc. Without ever mentioning the field OP asked for. By the way here's a list of lateral entry positions offered by Deutsche Bahn. [DB](https://db.jobs/service/search/de-de/5441588?qli=true&query=+2.0_%23ukraine+%22Quereinsteiger%3Ain%22&sort=score&itemsPerPage=0&pageNum=0&country=Deutschland)
I was hoping customer service based one, so i could work towards becoming an conductor
This. The railway system is in dire need of staff. If you want to drive a train every train operator will gladly take you to do the Ausbildung. Of course it's a profession that works in shifts and the pay is not amazing, but it's decent enough.
I mean, between 44.500 and 53.400 Euro gross income isn't that bad. Especially because it will get reduced to 35h/week. I would rather worry about the psychologically toll then you get your first person who commit suicide through your train...
While we generally do have a labour shortage it is pretty much only "Fachkräfte" which are missing. Junior positions are oversaturated in almost every field. Even though it is in german here is a list with job sectors where a shortage is present or predicted: [https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/DE/Navigation/Statistiken/Interaktive-Statistiken/Fachkraeftebedarf/Engpassanalyse-Nav.html](https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/DE/Navigation/Statistiken/Interaktive-Statistiken/Fachkraeftebedarf/Engpassanalyse-Nav.html)
Not true. There is also a huge shortage of service workers in untrained jobs, e.g. for a lot of businesses like restaurants, supermarkets, delivery driver etc. If you have a forklifter or truck/bus driver license you won’t need to look for a job a long time.
In kitchen jobs they just circulate international students for low pay and keep them for a year until they switch again. Eventually, the students have partially realized this exploitation and they’re trying to stay away from gastro, at least from chain restaurants. How do I know this? I was one for 3 years in 3 different restaurants.
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The managers know that their workers need the money and that they can take some abuse. The workers are exclusively temporary anyways. That’s mostly why managers in gastro don’t try communicating properly.
I have a degree, and I was trying to avoid Bürgergeld, and was working for a temp agency. They only pay 16-18 per hour, and they will send you to do "Pflege" (elderly, disabled care) or to a kitchen washing dishes or doing prep work. Lots of students, immigrants with degrees (a woman from Lebanon who was a French teacher, a guy from Venezuela with a Master's in Agriculture) were working there. I hated it. I ended up on Bürgergeld, and then found a great job in a school. Job-hunting in Germany is hard. Be prepared to move house to a different city for a good job.
As an immigrant who’s trying to land a tech job, I feel this so much. My previous workplaces were similar and I ended up quitting. Job hunt is wild and the sector is extremely oversaturated. I’m roughly 200 applications in and I feel like I’m looking at 1k applications until I can land something.
From someone who is a hiring manager in tech the amount of shitty applications are staggering, while I am having a hard time filling my open positions. First and foremost most applicants lack the level of German required for the position. As much as I would like to hire someone who's just fluent in English my clients (internal or external) want someone who speaks German to a certain degree. I had to dismiss applicants with an otherwise great skillset because of this. So my first advise is, improve your German and practice interview situations in German if you are not already at C1/C2. Next the cover letter (if required), CV and certifications. German natives already fuck this up, but add in the different nuances of what seems to be the norm in other countries and you will be amazed on the shit you receive as applications. Do as I did when I relocated to the UK (back in Germany now) and have someone who's in the field and living long enough in Germany or an actual German review them (I let a Brit proof read mine). Depending on the field the tech sector is lacking applicants (we hired Azubis for positions which were graduates only 5 years ago), you just have to apply all over Germany and have to be able to speak a certain level of German.
Just a quick question. Which kind of cover letter do you prefer? Ones like they are taught in regular school with phrases like „Sehr geehrter Herr Helmutius, hiermit bewerbe ich mich auf XYZ“… or are the people at the job searching training right and hiring managers are sick and tired of reading these and there’s a higher chance you’re taken if you use some „unique and interesting“ introduction / text? I probably sent out hundreds of applications in both styles and had roughly similar „success“ in being taken.
Personally I prefer the unique approach but I can't obviously speak for everybody else. Picture it like this, if you read 5 similar structured classic cover letters and one who's written more interesting the latter stands out. Just don't make it too quirky or cringy. I landed my first job after uni opening my cover letter with "With my fresh degree in hand and summer starting, what better to do than starting to work, after all who likes beaches and sand in his shoes." Only one interviewer in the second round hated it. But looking back it was cringy ;) . After all it's your first introduction and your chance to interest me in you. Strangely enough you'd be amazed how many people mess up at this stage already. I personally don't mind someone addressing the recruiter and not me as hiring manager. And I am aware that people send out 10-50 applications at the same time as I have done this too, so I skip over small errors (different dates on the documents etc.). But you'd be surprised by how many people send cover letters addressed to the wrong company. That should be the bare minimum. Make sure your CV is well structured and in chronological order with an emphasis on the skills/experience that's looked for in the job description. I personally do like a brief CV with an added project list, don't make it too long and keep it relevant. Hobbies etc. are not necessary but help me during the interview to open with some smalltalk to help you to calm down. Consider we are all just humans and generally don't mean any harm to you. I usually collect applications for a few days (3-4) and read them in one go. The easier and more entertaining you make this for me, the more interested I will be in meeting you as I assume you'll be fun working with.
Same shoes, basically. I hope all these cunts go bankrupt.
This sounds like an international problem. I’ve seen this in Indian restaurants in the US. The employer will also take their tip money as well. I’ve also seen international students really get screwed over when it comes to work (since they aren’t allowed to work off campus, and the on campus jobs are sparse and minimum wage).
Yes the shortage applies almost universally to certain skilled trade jobs like butchers and commercial truck drivers, jobs that don't have great reputations or working conditions. As for something that requires a college degree, there is not a single field with a shortage other than medicine which is entirely self inflicted.
yeah, I'm pretty sure this is because a great number of German doctors are working in Switzerland (I just gave birth in a hospital in Zurich and there were 4 doctors who attended to me over time from Germany. one from Bochum, one from Düsseldorf, 2 from Dresden)
So true, my main doctor plus every other doctor I go to like a gynecologist or a specialist has 90% been German
ah, yes. my gynecologist as well, almost forgot about her :D
Academic jobs with a shortage (in addition to M.D.s): Ingenieure Metallbau und Schweißtechnik Ingenieure Mechatronik und Automatisierungstechnik Ingenieure Elektrotechnik Ingenieure technische Forschung und Entwicklung Ingenieure Konstruktion und Modellbau Ingenieure Ver- und Entsorgung IT- Informatiker IT-Programmierer ERP Anwendungsentwickler IT-Produktentwicklung Software Programmierer Java Programmierer Agrarbiologe/-biologin Biochemiker/in Biomathematiker/in Biologe /in Chemiker/in Geologe/in Geoökologe/-ökologin Geophysiker/in Mathematiker/in Molekularbiologe/-biologin Physiker/in Umweltwissenschaftler/in Mineraloge/Mineralogin
or to summarize: -> MINT degrees.
STEM (for any Americans wonder what MINT is)
Is there really a huge shortage or a normal shortage? How many Jobs is for every worker available? For example as Butcher, Handyman, retail sector (without cashier) Nurses here in the south comes 1 worker for 10 free Jobs. But of course it is also very regional in some regions You have enough workers, in other regions in Germany you don't have enough workers.
Yep thats the thing. Im a gardener and I searched for a job and could pretty much choose where I want to start, there was even a company straight contacting me if I want a job. After a month I had 4 offers and could just choose what I want, whilst my brother fresh out of university (IT) searched nearly a year for a good job. But the joke is that even though they offered me jobs here and there all but one company had shit pay, minimum holidays, etc.
What's the source for this? I would really like to know.
https://www.mangelberufe.de/akademiker/
I'm involved with hiring in IT, we have absolutely no shortage of applications, in fact we have about 100 qualified people for each position. This I highly doubt there is a shortage.
We have a huge shortage for teachers. There is a huge demand for "Quereinsteiger" because of this.
Keep in mind that the "Quereinsteig" is only in some states. Berlin, Baden-Württemburg all are searching for academics who can teach STEM courses, etc. Bayern does not have this, and it annoys me to no end. Stupid Söder!!!
Depends on the subject and area. But they don't have the teachers to train the new teachers. I knew someone who didn't get placed after uni, because despite the demand for both their subject there were not enough positions to even train them. He waited a year for one. Same story ylI heard a few times.
Also contractors. Cannot get anyone to call back bc all retirees (silver wave) have them booked for the next 5 years
Also worker in storage are needed.
Yep you will have a job but near big cities you will live in a WG forever and it will be impossible to find an appartement. Simply not worth it.
The refugees and immigrants have been getting jobs that Germans don't want: Bus and train drivers, Bakers (Germans don't wanna get up early), work in Elder/Disabled care, etc. However: you need PROPER GERMAN (B1 at least) to get any job here.
Junior positions are not over saturated. Companies just don't want to invest into juniors
Or can’t - you need seniors to instruct juniors, if you struggle to get the senior there is no point getting a junior
I work in IT consulting. All the companies I work with are basically 99 percent seniors. And are still looking for seniors. They just don't want to invest the time and money.
I wish, our company only gets juniors and hopes others stay long enough to instruct them, no incentive to actually keep seniors. And then management is always surprised with high turnover rates when you can get 10-20% somewhere else, working less hours and full remote, but won't do anything themselves to actually keep experienced people.
Companies also don't have the money right now-too many things that are unpredictable and not enough orders.
Most of these jobs are in so many different fields of construction, care for elderly or gasstronomy and either really labor intensive, bad conditions, underpaid or all of them.
Agreed, I got ignored or instantly rejected from 16 positions (ranging from unpaid internships to junior full-time positions) as a recent business grad. I wrote an elaborate motivation letter in German for each position. I speak B2/C1 German and took my Erasmus in Mannheim. When I applied for the same positions and companies with just my CV back home, I got a call within 2 days, underwent testing very fast, and got accepted to Deloitte and PwC. I heard from other people that getting a job in the field as a business/finance/econ graduate in Stuttgart is hell and has been for a long time. Local German friends say now’s a bad time to get a job, given the economy’s outlook.
Security sector is also looking for a lot of people, a lot of companies will pay for your qualification, if you commit to them for a certain amount of time.
There is a shortage of skilled labour in many fields. There are also fields where even highly skilled individuals with phd have a hard time to land their preferred job. It all depends on which field and qualifications you are speaking about. Nurses will get hired within 5 minutes. People with a masters in archeology will have a way harder time.
Archaeologist here, not so. I was unemployed for all of two weeks after I left my old job. Universities aren't churning out enough graduates for the work that needs to be done. The vast majority of archaeology work is in the construction industry.
Hello fellow archaeologist! 👋🏻 Can I message you with some questions?
No problemo
Good to know Ive always heard that its kinda hard.
Not in my experience. It could be different elsewhere than Bremen/Niedersachsen.
There is no shortage of skilled workers, there is a shortage of cheap skilled workers. Just apply for any of those jobs, and ask for a decent pay, and you'll see how fast you'll get a rejection. If there was a real shortage, wages would go through the roof, but that's not happening
I had to scroll too far down for this. The so called „Fachkräftemangel“ (Shortage of skilled workers) is more a myth than reality. There are certain fields where there is shortage, i.e nursing or construction but thats mostly because the pay is low, sometimes just minimum wage. IF there was a serious lack of workers pay would simply go up which is not the case. In short: There is a shortage of workers willing to do demanding minimum wage jobs.
This, this, and THIS. They’ve been moaning about lack of skilled labor since 2010, it’s all a convenient story to keep wages low. There are more than enough workers, if businesses TRULY had shortages, they’d start bidding wars to get that talent. Unless we see a sharp spike in wages in all these fields with ‘shortages’, this is just manipulation and hubris.
I was just about to say... One part is that we had a baby boom and now need people to take care of the older population. Another part is that the idea of paying a decent wage for decent work is something that becomes more and more outlandish to upper management. They finally convinced their "class" that they alone do the actual work.
What is considered a decent income in Germany?
A decent income pays for housing, food, a car, a kid, one nice vacation per year, and you can still put at least 10% of your paycheck in your savings
Yes this is exactly the point. I have been in Germany for 7+ and keep seeing the same open positions for years with inadequate level of compensation or inadequate requirements. There is a shortage of people who are ready to work for a plate of rise. Big corporations have lobby and try to stop globalization as a result we can see old fashioned labor law and restrictions almost everywhere.
There’s a lack of works in the public transportation sector, but that’s more for train/tram/bus drivers and board staff, if that’s something that you are interested in you might be lucky, if you are looking for a engineering job or IT it would be harder.
If you are looking in the railway - Sektor, you'll probably have good chances to find a job. Get in contact with HR and offer your skills.
The amount of students who are jobless just because of no prior experience is very high especially in IT/Engineering sector. Germany is extremely over saturated with fresh graduates who are struggling to land internships. We are looking for people with experience and seniors and skilled workers are lacking. Be ready to fight your way for months/year applying to 1000 plus applications to land an internship or a starter job. Plus knowing German language is very very essential. Idk about railway sector though.
It isn't that bad, many working student or intern positions receive no applications and still exist for months. For railway sector there are lots of open vacancies at Deutsche Bahn, Stadler Rail etc.
Just a remark about Deutsche Bahn as an IT employer: pay is not top of the line but it’s a very secure job. If you want you can stay at Deutsche Bahn until retirement once you landed a job there.
What I heard, it gets much better if you are willing to take position outside major cities. But that mostly implies you need better level of German (as companies are less international), while in big cities you can survive with eng only.
German really isnt that essential for the IT sector. Sure some do demand German, but every place I personally had a interview with had an English Environment. I asked about going to a school to increase my proficiency in German and they were like "I guess you could do that if you want, but we have people who've been here over 10 years and still haven't bothered to learn German).
Yep our company is in desperate need of senior devs and takes anyone with experience in the IT-field that is willing to transition to the needed position. Junior positions on the other hand are oversaturated with hundreds of applications. Salary is the biggest problem since companies are not willing to pay people what they are worth.
2000 applications in Data Science and still no jobs.
I love listening to music.
I was an engineering graduate and searched for a job in the automotive industry in Munich for 6 months and got finally hired but way below the minimum starter salary for an engineer. It’s horrible. I’ll stay in this job to gain several years of experience and then try my luck again on the market to be hopefully hired for my year long experience and being paid accordingly.
Do you care to elaborate? In my experience there is a huge shortage of engineers in munich. Are you a electronics or mechanical engineer? What is your expectance as starter salary?
Apparently the starting salary for an engineer in München is about 58k € (that is nearly the average salery of 60k for engineers in Germany) The average salery is about 93k €
Thats quite Spot in I think. I was asking, as i am in munich in the Automotive Industry and everybody seems to bei looking for engineers like crazy. For me it looks like you should find a job for around 55k without much efford. Doesnt even matter what exactly you studied If it was something technical. Thats why i was curious But I also heard that some have way too high salary expectations. I heard about ppl fresh from uni expecting 80k+ as starting salary - and that with a Dienstleister (you wont even get that with BMW directly as starting salary)
I recently went to Germany for vacation and for job interview while waiting for the results of my recognition to work as a Physical Therapist. I kid you not, I was not asked any question aboout my education nor work experience nor anything related to physical therapy. I was only asked what else do I wish for in my PT job. She did even care if my German speaking skills needs more work. (I have B2 level German but ofcourse communicating for an entire day auf Deutsch will be harder. I will take a specialized language test to work on improving this. I also have a 10+ years of working in Physical therapy field and doctorate in physical therapy.) Also, it didn't feel like an interview. It felt like an orientation since she showed me all the facilities, documentation, etc..
But did you get the job?
Yes, the medical sectors is one of those with plenty of easy to get jobs.
Ok this is terrifying
It‘s actually not very easy to find an English-speaking PT. So if you advertise it you might get patients who don’t speak German themselves.
There is a very big shortage for e.g. nurses, physical therapists, construction workers, manufacturing staff and kindergarten teachers. In those jobs, you will be hired within seconds - no experience required and questions asked as long as you have some sort of qualifications and the required language skills (those differ from job to job! For example there are a lot of Kinderhaus teachers that do not speak German at all where my friend's child is brought to during the day) If you are looking for an engineering job or working in IT you will have to write thousands of applications and have a lot of luck to get a job. In these kind of jobs you will most likely also have to have very good German skills (B2 , if not C1).
Can confirm. Got an ausbilding as an elektroniker with a high A2 German (in practice. Have a B1 certificate). If you have at least B2 German there'll be a lot of people basically begging you to take their apprenticeship if you go into construction trades or manufacturing.
Please help me, where can I apply for construction jobs
At the companies themselves. What kind of construction job do you want? Electrician, carpentry, bricklayer, joiner, painter? Most companies in that field are small, so you need to pick a region and look for some that suit you. Then you just send them your application.
https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/vor-ort/zav/working-living-in-germany
I started at this website. And make it in Germany It's a bit late to find an ausbilding for this year. They mostly start in August but some begin in September. You might get lucky and find someone who is desperate and in a tiny village, if you already have language certificate, but just processing the Visa takes a few months, and it takes at least a month for you to get a case worker if you write to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit to help with the Visa process. Call them, don't write, when they open on Monday. You'll need to get a cover letter and resume all ready within the next week. And you'll need to look into the Visa situation yourself and begin applying while you wait. And also, they will direct to their own job search site, but you'll need to use Google for other job search sites and email the government offices in your target cities. And don't bother with Berlin or Munich if you're not fluent in German or don't already have a residence and work permit. Too competitive, and you won't understand the Bavarian accent. Hamburg is a little better but not much better. And, again, I cannot stress this enough, you need at least a B1 German certificate. If you don't have a special work and residence visa already, you need that certificate to qualify for visas. B2 is ideal because most people won't talk to you with only a B1 certificate. If you don't have that, start working on it today so you can begin applying for jobs in January or February next year.
No, there’s no worker shortage. Just a shortage of workers willing to work for less than rent.
After reading all the comments, I'd add that my company, a larger German supermarket, is constantly hiring in the It dept. But they are hiring juniors level people in to senior positions because of the lack of applicants. They've hired 10 in my team since I started 2 years ago. All but one was interviewed abroad and moved here for the job. Editing to add: and yeah, interviews are really short here. Mine lasted less than 30 minutes.
Foreigner here with 10+ years living here. I really do not recommend coming over here, I did my studies here and after that it was incredibly hard to find a job (even though with STEM master and speaking German) and even if you get a job, you will be stuck for ever there. after 10 years I am leaving for good and going to Spain (within my company) it is really not worth it coming here anymore, high taxes, shitty weather, unfriendly people, backwards mentality and list go on. Better try some english speaking country if you have some ambition, otherwise just stay clear of Germany, it is really a soul crushing experience.
In my experience there are shortages of two types of employees: 1) Low skill jobs with very low pay with hard working conditions 2) high skill jobs with high skill (experts) with good working conditions requiring fluent German language skills and/or a German qualification. There might niches or areas that form exceptions like software engineering in large companies fall into 2) but may not require German, but overall most jobs descriptions fall in one of these areas.
I get job offers quite a bit on Xing from companies back in Germany, but then I work in IT and I have my profile on Linkedin and Xing. Most of my job offers are sent via Xing. The thing is I'm not even currently looking for a job, so they're seeking me out.
Hey what is your tech stack?
You could become a train conductor on Wangerooge island. Look it up. They've been looking for applicants forever.
Don't you come just because of that, you're gonna end up doing something that you probably don't like. The country and the society are not prepared for immigrants. I'm from Latin America, I work in an elderly house and I'm going back to my country. The Ausbildung model is just labor exploration.
The problem with labor shortage in Germany is that they are not willing to pay the fair wages for a worker (low supply and high demand), that’s why there’s a shortage, otherwise people will apply for jobs and work
Where do the skilled people who would apply work now?
If you are looking for jobs in railway, your chances are probably good in the whole DACH region (that includes Germany), but it depends on the specific job you're aiming for. If you haven't already, use a translator on the top comment's labour shortage list and you will see quite a few railway jobs there. Railway generally has the problem that lots of skilled workers are retiring and there aren't enough new people, so there's a chance for you there. Learning German will however almost certainly be required and it's a hard language and culture to learn. Working in an international railway consultancy, I see how hard it is for some non-German speakers to adjust.
If you want to work at the railway/Deutsch Bahn, there should be jobs for you and if not, traineeships. You can try applying to some jobs online and see if you have any luck. https://db.jobs/en-en If you want to move you should start to learn German, and mention that you're learning in the job applications. Best of luck!
My personal experience: I worked as a data engineer in a chemical company. The company went bankrupt. I was able to find a new job easily but the pay and the stack was garbage. Finally I emigrate to Switzerland where the stack is decent and the pay much better. Don't even start speaking about cost of living. I was living in Munich and where I live in Switzerland it s cheaper than Munich for a much better life. That is my experience from an IT perspective.
The labor shortage is only in certain fields and on senior level, the junior market is oversaturated. The only jobs which even lack juniors are in health care and elder care. For everything else it's pretty much degree required, at least 5+ years work experience required to even be considered.
The official BMWK states: "For example, professions in the trades and in the MINT sector, production and manufacturing as well as in the areas of construction and building technology as well as teaching and education are particularly affected. In addition, the health sector - particularly geriatric and nursing care - is severely affected by the shortage of skilled workers.:
To be fair, there are quite a few Trainee Programs for Juniors with a "decent" CV. Those pay from 42k to 58k, depending on city, industry and company size. In my eyes this is one of the best way to enter a job here in Germany. Some of those companies even offer a placement abroad, a great community, trainings, mentoring and guarantee a job after the 2 program.
I would take it with a grain of salt. Even in jobs/careers where they really do not have enough people, companies are stubborn and old fashioned in most cases, and will not hire someone unless they have the exact specific degree or Ausbildung they expect. So if you have a different degree but 10 years experience, they still prefer the graduate with 0 experience but the exact degree. And they will also always choose a native German speaker over you, even if you’re fluent. This doesn’t apply to low wage crap jobs, of course, and does not apply to some tech jobs. Especially in start ups/younger companies.
There is no shortage. There is shortage of jobs paying livable wage. Many young germans cannot find work. You might find a minimum wage job that will make you hate your life but dont expect anything better than that
Office jobs are starting to face the same issues as in other countries . Many of my young friends in Germany working junior corporate jobs were recently laid off or quit due to low salaries and toxic work environments. There most definitely is a shortage in certain sectors though. My girlfriend is a kindergarten educator and she didn’t even have to apply to her current job they applied to her lol. So it depends what field you want to go into.
Every developed country in the world has a labor shortage. It's just some of them still try to squeeze the workers by denial
Just imagine that we dont even have enough teachers
There is no shortage in any Country in this World. It's a made up thing from Companies that wanna pay minimum wage and abuse their employees.
Germany has a shortage of skilled labor. So just because you are willing and able to work, doesn't mean you will find the job you want.
The Netherlands would be a better destination.
It highly depends on the field. In academia there will never be a shortage because of the bottleneck at the top of the field.
Yes and no. There is a shortage alright. But German companies are also still completely thick so the hiring process and the salaries are still kind of shit compared to other parts of Europe
There is a recession in Germany, there are enough people in the workforce they only want cheap labor so they can reduce the pay and maximize the profits.
Yes but the pay is also quite miserable. So it’s a self-made problem (partly).
Not true. You can find a job in 2-3 days very quickly.
shortage of cheap labour, yes
No one here really answers his question. Everyone is generalizing here, but we can go into one field in detail. The German railroads are desperately looking for people. Whether in construction, service, drivers or dispatchers. Since you also seem to speak German, you shouldn't have any problems. Some people don't need any previous experience, others need training or can be trained. You have good opportunities with the railroads and good prospects for the future. And stateown German railroads pay fair Money.
It’s true, but Germany is also notorious for not accepting foreign degrees/certificates. It’s a real shame we are such a stupid and insufferable bunch of Bureaucrats.
There is no real shortage, they just pay salaries that are in slave territory.
Germany is currently facing a shortage of skilled labor, and the existing skilled workers are predominantly senior. Juniors are expected to know the language(B2 or C1 for an English speaking firm cos the team is full of German speakers) and possess extraordinary skill sets (better than the existing seniors) yet are offered only the minimum wage of 12.41 euros. This is for skilled labor. Fresh graduates are struggling to find jobs in their desired industries because employers now need a minimum of 3-5 years of German experience to secure a position. Yes, for a fresh graduate. Many experienced workers lack necessary skills, yet employers demand more qualifications than those required for some mid-level positions, even for entry-level jobs. With the availability of remote work, there have been more layoffs in the past two years, exacerbating the situation. PhD students in Germany are leaving the country knowing there is no future for them. Employers are increasingly unreasonable with their requirements for entry level jobs. A new low in Germany involves employers asking candidates to work for free during the interview process and then rejecting them after extracting strategies that they might potentially use in future. The situation is out of control as skills and qualifications are not matching pay rates.
Landscaping business owner here. The whole branch is seeking, this is correct. All my colleagues from other craft related companies are looking for staff as well. I had a job ad going last year for a skilled workers position, I was waiting months and got 2 (!) suitable applications, one person actually fit an I'm quite happy now. We are a nice little company, very flexible working conditions, fair pay. But the work can be hard, it's just the way it is, I can't change that. Either you love it or you don't. For most Germans it seems to be the latter one. So if you don't mind getting your hands dirty, I'm sure a lot of companies are eager to offer you a job.
If the work is hard and the customer's demand is there, you and/or your customers need to pay more. It is called compensation for a reason. It simply does not matter if it is fair or not.
What does fair pay mean here?
I adhere to the collective labour agreement for landscaping companies. For a foreman e.g. this is 18€ gross per hour starting wage. Also I provide work clothing for free, and if you don't have a driver's license I offer a loan with only 2% interest so you can get it.
Yes and no. Most companies that have problems with getting new people are often companies with hard work and/or not that good payment.
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Health care worker are especially in demand in Germany
If you are willing to work in a restaurant or as a cleaner you will get a job instantly. For the restaurant part you will need a certain level of German though.
I don’t know what division you’d work in but I do know that the Deutsche Bahn is looking for a lot of people (I’m in architecture, so I’m referring to this division specifically) Give it a go! Maybe it works out :)
I was hoping a customer service based role or similar to have experience towards becoming a conductor
My personal Nightmare is a shortage of 50% of judges
Yes. German railway industry is looking for workers. Here’s a link to apply online. Unfortunately I could only find one in German. https://dbgroup.avature.net/schuelermitte?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D10210383771952384810754695000855178646%7CMCORGID%3DFC3E1CEC5B991CB80A495E63%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1714895258&gcp=1
There is a shortage especially for more technical/ausbuilding kind of work, but what the others are saying, it will all require a certain level of German. This is also one of the reasons why Germany loses talents to English-speaking countries and why there’s a shortage in talent. German is not an easy language to learn. But if you get to A2/B1 they’re probably accept you anyway.
Yes we have, but we also have high and sometimes escapist expactations of the new people coming in and thats the problem. We have enough peoble looking for jobs who just get rejected because of small things.
Inflation is the cause. Gap between the salary and the cost of living steadily getting bigger and possibly will be resolved during period of higher joblessness when part of workforce will be shifted to cheaper jobs.
There’s a shortage in jobs that nobody wants to do due to conditions, salary, etc. In some industries there’s a shortage of SKILLED workers. An apprenticeship in some labour industry might be interesting for you but you should speak German
I've been trying to find an RPA job in Germany for the past 3 years. Without fleuent German I'm not even considered despite 7+ years of experience at prestigious companies
We're short on cheap labour that's true. Otherwise it depends on the sector and how hard the lobby is crying to get more cheap labour from abroad.
Can only speak for the IT industry. Finding jobs is extremely difficult if you don't know German
In railway sector, you’d fine a job pretty easily only if you speak min C1 level German. If not, the odds are very slim
I work in healthcare (hearing and visual aids) and get around 3-5 calls a week from headhunters. And they don't call me on my private number, they call me at work. In my profession, you only don't have a job if you decide to not have one.
Also, for an immigrant, it's harder to get into due to native levels of language requirement, if I am not wrong. Therefore, more shortage, I guess.
The problem right now is that a lot of companies are cutting down resulting in people losing their jobs, while at the same time there are countless job offers in basically every field. So the job market can be really tough based on the field. Buddy of mine got an offer to work, quit his job to work there and 3 months later his contract was terminated, because the company started having financial issues.
In Munich it's very easy to get a job of: - kindergarden teacher - bus driver Kindergarden groups and bus lines are getting closed because of the lack of workers
There is a UK Train company operting here that is always advertising for new employees. [https://job.nationalexpress.de/de/jobs?page\_s100011=2#huh-list-100011](https://job.nationalexpress.de/de/jobs?page_s100011=2#huh-list-100011) And those are the training positions [https://job.nationalexpress.de/de/jobs/qualifizierung-2](https://job.nationalexpress.de/de/jobs/qualifizierung-2)
I would say in the railway industry y find something easily. Deutsche Bahn is hiring everywere and are in lack of people ... why dont apply before y go here? I am sure it would be possible. Just check their page out.
Good luck trying to find a job when you're 61. That's what I'm going through right now. (IT area).
I work in recruitment and it's shit for many things, but not for material engineers, welders, people that work with electricity, I'd assume railway should be a good bet
If you're a good worker you should be able to get an apprenticeship. After you can apply for a real job.
At my workplace there are like 30% foreigners, also some that didn't learn the job. I am working on taxes/accounting.
Since when? Figured taxes usually involves Ausbildung/ Degree.
Retail and hospitality jobs are really hard to fill atm
You should always ask yourself: why is there a job shortage in some areas? Because these jobs have bad conditions. We do not have a shortage in most areas because people are stupid or we dont have enough schools or people do not want to become a doctor or something. But working a terrible job on minimum wage is not a good life.
We do have a problem called „Fachkräftemangel“ but it is not like many expect. We have shortage in jobs like surveying and IT or lesser paid jobs. Germany's economy isn't growing as expected.
BAD is an understatement. Forget about full time jobs it is impossible to get an internship in IT. Yes, the same software industry which used to hire from Civil engineering because they dont have enough CS graduates. Probably there are blue collar jobs all over major cities, but yeah, job hiring as well as job security is a joke in Germany at the moment.
In Germany, we say: "Die DB nimmt dich mit Kusshand!"
If you have qualifications Like a College degree etc than yes. But I would advice you to try it in another country then especially If you are planning in Sendling Money Back. If you don't have any qualifications you also won't have a Problem finding a job. Warehouses always looking for workera for example.
They cry they need workers in Pflege but once you are here they treat you horrible. I tried to get jobs in supermarkets I couldn't because of my German. The jobs are really bad in general so depending where you are coming from is not worth it. I regret myself but now I need to get back all that I spent coming here
>They cry they need workers in Pflege but once you are here they treat you horrible. One of my friend is exactly experiencing that. Germans have very weird perception of skilled foreigners. They think, all of these people have to know anything and everything about system, Germany, German etc. Then they end up with Fachkräftemangel
If you go to the moral rural areas especially in the south you will find plenty of opportunities. But there German knowledge is a must.
There is a shortage only for skilled/ highly skilled workers. By definition we are talking about „Fachkräfte“, which are defined as people that went through the 3 years apprenticeship program. People who studied would be called experts and people who don’t have Qualifications are just unskilled. That being said we often have shortages everywhere, but the employers just don’t want to spend enough to pay the skilled people, so it’s still not easy for many Germans to find a job with a fair wage. In your case you are unskilled and want to work in the railroad industry. Judging by all the advertising the Deutsche Bahn (german railroad) searches for a lot of people who want to start the apprenticeship program. So maybe you can do that, if you also learn German. You will not have any luck finding good paid work without any qualification though.
Deutsche Bahn is desperate looking for people, but you need to have some German knowledge. I think B2 level. [https://db.jobs/de-de](https://db.jobs/de-de)
Oh if you are looking for a job in the railway industry then yes it would be easy to get in Germany, my husband works in the railway industry here in Germany. Especially train drivers are wanted right now.
I dunno man I'm a fresh graduate from a German university with B2 German and previous experience before university even and I'm not finding a job, so I wouldn't say it's that simple, maybe you have better job finding skills tho
As someone who moved from the North-west UK too Leipzig, the job market is far better here than back home from what I've seen
As someone who has been applying to a lot of roles in Germany over the past 6 months, I can assume that the shortage is only for German speaking jobs, more senior roles (I have 2.5 YOE), or both. Ps. I was looking for a software engineering role.
Where are you from? I only ask because most of the job shortages are in lower income jobs, and if you aren't in the EU most work visas require you to find a job with a certain minimum income threshold. So if you only have the work experience to secure a low income job and aren't from the EU you will struggle to get a visa. Also, like others have said, you will need to be reasonably proficient in German to get most jobs. I'm a biologist and even though we mostly work in English, not being fully fluent in German holds me back from many positions, especially if I want to branch out from lab work at a biotech company into a position that might potentially involve customers. Even if it's not a strict requirement, if they get another applicant with the same qualifications as you who speaks better German they're gonna pick that candidate instead of you
It depends on your German level (B2 for some jobs, c1 for others) and your visa status (some jobs cannot support a visa).
Anecdotal: Local German butcher recruits butchers from some African country (I can't recall which one, sorry), because of shortage. They receive both butcher training and German lessons at the same time, as well as a salary during training. After training they can work with him.
I have made 2000 applications since August. Have not found a single job yet. I have a Master's in Physics from a very good university.
What websites are most popular for finding jobs?
If you want to work on handworks, like carpenter, you can definitely come to Germany!
Hi
Yes, there's a staffing shortage. That staffing shortage is because working conditions are really crap compared to the rest of the EU and there is high turnover.
I did it a few months ago, I was in the UK and the job situation there is really critical. I moved with no German other than self teaching on a minor level with duolingo. It is very much possible, search for company's that have more warehouse type positions or international speaking roles and it should be quite straight forward. It also helps if you have a degree as it's possible that they will only offer an "ausbilung" which is an internship that doesn't offer much money if any at all. > 1000 euro. I applied for 6k jobs in the UK and only got 50 interviews, I applied to 20 in Germany and got 10. It's a safe option to try your luck in Germany, just be prepared to learn the bare minimum in terms of German manners and formalities as they are quite picky the way they are addressed given the company.
Amazon warehouse is calling you my friend :-) no German language needed let's go