🔶 A new study; Germany’s job market against immigration policies

A little before the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, a new analysis by the “German Economic Institute” in Cologne shows that eastern Germany has become increasingly dependent on immigration to retain its skilled workforce.

According to this analysis, if there were no immigration from EU member states and countries outside the EU, the number of skilled employees subject to social security insurance in eastern German states would have been about 191,000—around 5.3% fewer.

The report examines the trend of declining labor with German citizenship and increasing the importance of foreign labor. Based on it, the number of skilled employees with German citizenship has been on a downward trend since 2019.

During the same period, the labor force with citizenship of EU member states continued to help maintain the number of skilled workers in eastern Germany, but the importance of workers from countries outside the EU in the eastern German labor market has increased.

According to Fabian Semsarsara, an expert in the skilled labor sector at the German Economic Institute, “immigration from EU member states for a long time has reduced the effects of demographic changes on the labor market,” but this source of labor is also declining.

According to him, in the future it will be difficult to stabilize the supply of skilled labor without the presence of citizens of countries outside the EU.

Based on the data from this analysis, nearly 160,000 foreign skilled workers are currently working in jobs that face labor shortages. The role of these workers is more pronounced in areas such as transportation and cargo handling, healthcare services, and accommodation and catering services.

Nearly one quarter of professional drivers in eastern German states do not have German citizenship. The share of foreign workers among cooks is also around 20%, and about one quarter of the physicians working in these states do not have German citizenship.

Foreign workers also make up a significant portion of the workforce in nursing, automotive technology, and other professions that are facing a shortage of skilled workers.

Semsarsara warned that reducing immigration or increasing the departure of foreign workers could place severe pressure on different parts of eastern Germany’s economy, from transportation and cargo handling to healthcare services and accommodation and catering services.

📌 Read the full text of the report on the website of Deutsche Welle Persian.