Germany needs foreign workers to fill vacancies, says labour minister

Germany urgently needs foreign workers to fill the country's many open jobs, Labour Minister Bärbel Bas said.

The German economy needs "people who develop new ideas, operate diggers or work in production," Bas told a conference on migration and work in Berlin.

In many sectors and regions, qualified employees are already in short supply, the minister warned. "Even if we tap into all the potential of our domestic skilled labour, it will not be enough."

As a consequence, Bas believes Germany must work to attract skilled workers from non-EU countries.

Germany is in fierce international competition with other countries that have similar demographic problems, she said.

The 3 million unemployed people in Germany cannot fill the gaps in employment, she added. "The unemployed welder in Kiel cannot simply replace the nursing professional in Konstanz."

Just under one in 10 employees in Germany was foreign in 2015, data from the Federal Employment Agency shows.

Ten years later, that ratio had risen to one in six or 17%.

The number of EU citizens working in Germany in 2023 was 2.54 million but was recently down by 30,000, while the number of workers from other countries has risen sharply from 2.74 million to 3.29 million over the same period.

Agency expert Daniel Terzenbach said migration is a "necessary prerequisite for our country's economic performance and social stability."

No immigration means less prosperity, he warned. "You can't run away from this reality."