Full employment of engineers reached in Germany

According to the Association of German Engineers (VDI) the number of unemployed engineers once more fell in May 2008. Currently there are only 22.000 unemployed engineers which corresponds to a decrease by 3.5% as compared to April this year. “We have virtually achieved full employment on the labour market for engineers“, is the comment by VDI chairman Dr. Willi Fuchs on this positive development. The other side of the coin: the lack of engineers is still big with the number of vacancies amounting to 95,700.

However, there are differences in the several economic branches. While the number of vacancies for mechanical and electrical engineers slightly increased, the number of vacancies for structural engineers has fallen by 7% to 12,165 since April this year.
The lack of experts is still a big problem. For this reason the VDI keeps urgently calling for the introduction of technical training at schools. This is a claim which is also supported by teachers. A survey at schools commissioned by VDI revealed that 90% of teachers interviewed hold the opinion that engineering should become an integral part of schooling. GERMAN

Matomo