An expat on the move: Is the skills shortage truth or purposefully spread myth?

"Help, shortage of skilled workers", "Lack of applicants for vacancies": these or similar headlines appear in the print media. The press repeats the message almost in unison, so that the interested contemporary has to search for a long time to find differentiated or critical articles on this topic. There are indeed such discussions about the supposed shortage of skilled workers and the alleged consequences, but they are usually lost in the general noise of the press. News programs or political magazines on television follow suit, although there are exceptions. For example, on July 21, 1014, ARD broadcast an informative report entitled "The fairy tale of the skills shortage". However, the report was not broadcast during prime time, but so late that very few viewers are likely to have seen it.

There may be various reasons why it is apparently easier for most journalists to follow the majority opinion instead of critically questioning it. However, the question arises as to who is launching the message about the shortage of skilled workers and with what intention. The loud cry for help is a deliberate distraction from serious problems: Unemployment and wage dumping. The players in this game are companies and business lobby groups, who are working shoulder to shoulder with politicians, the DGB and the Federal Employment Agency to maintain the thesis.

But what is the actual situation regarding the supposed shortage of skilled workers? The fact is that there are regional and sector-specific differences. In rural areas such as the south of Thuringia, mechanical engineering companies have problems filling vacancies. However, this is not due to a general shortage of experts, but to unattractive locations and working conditions, from which neighboring Bavaria benefits. Engineers, like doctors and IT experts, are among the occupational groups for which too few applicants are complained about. However, the reality for university graduates is diametrically opposed to this complaint. After graduating, applicants are confronted with the fact that they often cannot find a job, even with top grades.

Nevertheless, the Association of German Engineers (VDI), for example, regularly sounds the alarm and repeatedly claims that Germany is on the brink of economic standstill. To this end, the VDI performs a calculation that is tantamount to manipulation. The association multiplies reported vacancies by a factor of seven without being able to provide a factual basis for this. In contrast, the association does not apply a multiplication factor to engineers registered as unemployed. The so-called shortage of skilled workers among engineers thus proves to be a statistical trick.

However, politicians are responding to the lobbyists' efforts. The massive recruitment of skilled workers from abroad is in full swing. Until a few years ago, the lower annual salary limit for top foreign professionals was 66,000 euros, but politicians have now lowered it to 47,600 euros. Engineers are already allowed to be employed with an annual gross salary of 32,000 euros. The figures are revised annually and there is a steady downward trend. While the German gross domestic product is growing and companies are making excellent profits, companies are clearly not prepared to allow their employees to participate in this growth. SMEs, which continue to complain about the shortage of skilled workers, are not only creating a threatening backdrop, but have also managed to ensure that the effects are felt on the German labor market. Applicants have to accept salary cuts in the competition for jobs.

All in all, the result is a situation in which business managers and economists are in need of an explanation. A shortage usually triggers an increase in the price of a commodity, but not so with labor. Lobbyists have done a great job here. As a result, the persistently repeated thesis of a shortage of skilled workers leads to hordes of cheap labor.