Residential renovators, refrigeration system builders, electrical engineers: they will all be needed in the future to advance the energy transition. Fewer and fewer people are opting for a skilled trade. An exclusive evaluation by "Index Research" for the star shows that the number of jobs in the "construction workers/craftsmen" sector has recently increased significantly. To do this, what claims to be Europe's largest job advertisements database has analyzed the advertised job offers in several hundred print and online media, the job portal of the Federal Employment Agency and 136,000 company websites.

In the first eight months of the current year, an increase of more than 18 percent in advertised positions was registered. This continues the increase from the same period of the previous year (22.2 percent). From January 1, 2022 to August 31, 2022 there were around 1.3 million jobs at around 201,000 companies. In 2021 there were still around 1.1 million jobs at around 181,000 companies. In the first eight months of 2020, however, there were around 912,000 jobs at around 148,000 companies, a decline of 33.4 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. At the same time, the estimated expenses for placing job advertisements in 2022 have almost doubled to over 450,000,000 euros.

Jürgen Grenz, CEO of the "Index Group" explains: "The large number of jobs in these occupational groups is mainly due to the ongoing construction boom. In addition, the baby boomers are gradually retiring and young people are becoming more and more selective when choosing their employer. Most Craftsmen, construction workers and technical specialists can now choose their jobs."

Specifically, a good 20 sectors were evaluated. By far the most jobs were in the "Provision of other economic services" sector with 765,611 jobs at 27,993 companies, followed by "manufacturing industry" with 248,102 jobs at 47,514 companies. In third place was the "construction trade" with 176,065 jobs in 40,585 companies. "Private households with domestic staff; production of goods and provision of services by private households for their own use without a specific focus" came in at the bottom of the ranking with 854 jobs and "Extraterritorial organizations and corporations" with 231 jobs, ahead of the last-placed "Other industries" with 10 digits.

During the survey period, qualified employees were primarily sought after. The "skilled trades" sector with almost 1.2 million vacancies was outstanding. There were also around 151,000 training positions. The area "skilled workers with vocational training and special qualifications" only had 199 jobs.

ARWA Personaldienstleistungen GmbH had by far the most jobs in the construction workers and craftsmen sector with over 68,000 jobs. Randstad Germany GmbH

Bavaria had the most vacancies (around 272,000). Between around 130,000 and 260,000 jobs were recorded in the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony. At the same time, the number of companies was between around 24,500 and almost 46,000. Berlin was in the middle with 66,768 job vacancies at 9,823 companies and Thuringia with 58,252 jobs at 5,246 companies. Saarland came last with 14,188 jobs at 3,476 companies.

In a Germany-wide comparison of cities, Berlin had by far the most jobs (66,704). Hamburg followed in second place with almost half this number, followed by the cities of Munich (24,429) and Cologne (15,707). The fewest jobs were in Bremen (13,047) and in Stuttgart (12,682).

The large shortage of craftsmen is worrying the industry. Craft President Hans Peter Wollseifer called for an "education turnaround" in Germany at the end of July in view of the shortage of skilled workers. He told the German Press Agency: "We assume that there will be a quarter of a million skilled workers who are lacking in the trades. We are missing a lot of young people in training."

According to Wollseifer, the problem lies in the low number of applicants. "Thousands of training places and thus training opportunities" are not being used, according to the President of the Central Association of German Crafts. In order to improve this, more appreciation and more recognition for professional training is necessary - above all, however, adequate funding for professional training.

Sources: Index Research, with material from the dpa