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The STEM labor gap rises to a record high of 320,600 missing STEM workers in April. Without initial successes in immigration, the gap would be over 600,000. The biggest shortages are in the energy/electrical and IT sectors.

Berlin, May 24, 2022: The "STEM Spring Report" study shows that the labor gap in the STEM sector (mathematics, information technology, natural sciences, technology) is increasing sharply. The STEM labor gap reached a new record high in April 2022 with a total of 320,600 missing STEM workers for the comparative month of April. Last year, the STEM skills gap in April 2021 was only half as high at 159,800 missing STEM workers. In recent years, employment figures and shortages have risen particularly sharply in the energy/electrical and IT sectors.

Prof. Dr. Axel Plünnecke, Head of the Competence Field Education, Immigration and Innovation at the CologneInstitute for Economic Research: "Without the success of STEM immigration in recent years, there would already be an additional shortage of around 312,000 STEM workers in Germany and the STEM gap would be over 600,000. Research performance in Germany - measured in terms of patents - has increased in recent years simply because patent applications from inventors with foreign roots have increased. In the case of patent applications in digitalization technologies, the proportion of inventors with foreign roots has risen particularly sharply from 8.2% in 2010 to 14.0% in 2018. In the telecommunications and IT industry group, the proportion of immigrants is as high as 22.5%."

Indra Hadeler, Managing Director Education and International Relations of the Gesamtmetall employers' association:

"The next generation of STEM talent is in danger of dwindling. The negative effects of the pandemic-related school closures on pupils' STEM skills and the decline in the number of first-year STEM students are leaving deep scars. Around 36% of STEM employees work in the M+E industry. Securing the next generation of STEM talent is therefore particularly important for the industry in order to set the course for digitalization and decarbonization and thus for sustainable growth through innovation. The M+E industry invests around 101 billion euros in innovation every year - that is 59% of German innovation expenditure. 75 percent of all patent applications in Germany come from the M+E industry - climate protection and digitalization are becoming increasingly important."

Christina Ramb, Member of the Executive Board of the BDA: "Digitalization, decarbonization and demographic development are challenging our education system simultaneously and from different directions. STEM education is an important key to overcoming these central challenges. The STEM labor shortage is already having an impact on our competitiveness. Further potential must be tapped quickly. By providing career and study guidance that is free of stereotypes, we also need to get more women in particular interested in STEM professions, which are still severely underrepresented here. STEM professions offer excellent employment and career prospects. The opportunities for skilled workers to migrate to STEM professions should also be urgently improved by simplifying procedures."

Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel, Chairman of MINT Zukunft e. V.: "STEM remains the greatest lever for understanding and shaping the world of today and tomorrow. STEM also offers a good opportunity for the much-publicized educational advancement. Schools play a particularly important role here, as this is where the foundation for STEM skills is laid and pupils are taught the joy of shaping the real and virtual world. Broad, interdisciplinary teaching makes it possible, for example, to bring the buzzword "data-driven business models" to life later in professional life. Giving digitalization more space in the classroom is a key condition for success. This should be achieved on the one hand by strengthening digital skills and on the other by expanding basic information technology education, e.g. through a computer science subject. The challenge clearly stated in the STEM spring report is that purely virtual learning cannot keep up with on-site forms of learning and teaching in terms of effectiveness."

Edith Wolf and Dr. Ekkehard Winter, board members of the National STEM Forum: "These dramatic figures show that politicians need to take action - cooperation is required at all levels, between the federal, state and local governments. The promotion of STEM education should no longer just be a matter for education policy. Labor and economic departments should also be involved. A real opportunity to give many children access to the STEM disciplines is the regular integration of extracurricular STEM stakeholders into all-day activities, e.g. via fixed days. Making use of this potential would lead to considerably more participation and equal opportunities. Children from educationally disadvantaged households in particular would benefit greatly from this."

You can find the STEM Spring Report 2022 here.

About the MINT Report

The MINT Report is produced twice a year by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research. The study is commissioned by the following members of the National MINT Forum: Confederation of German Employers' Associations, Employers' Federation Gesamtmetall and MINT Zukunft schaffen.