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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.

Commenting on today's minimum wage hearing, BDA Managing Director Steffen Kampeter said:

State wage setting threatens collective bargaining autonomy

Berlin, May 16, 2022: The draft law on the minimum wage is the most fundamental attack on the autonomy of collective bargaining in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Basic Law leaves it to the parties to collective agreements to shape wages and working conditions. The current procedure for adjusting the minimum wage respects this role of the parties to the collective agreement. This is now to be ended for the sake of coalition discipline. The draft bill takes the path of introducing a state wage instead of collective wage setting.

Parliamentary election campaigns and party political considerations threaten to shape collective bargaining to an unprecedented extent in the future. In this context, the Sunday speeches with their commitment to collective bargaining autonomy seem like something from another world. And the announcement that this really is the last time seems just as credible as the announcement of snow in the Sahara.

The German government's hymns of praise for the Minimum Wage Commission are equally vapid. In its decisions over the past six years, the commission has tracked wage developments and thus protected the autonomy of collective bargaining. In doing so, it raised the minimum wage from 8.50 euros to 10.45 euros in July - unanimously and pacifying the different interests. Now the minimum wage is to be raised by 15 percent in one step. You have to seriously ask yourself what the point of a commission is if politicians take sides and downright trample on the commission's many years of work.

Two expert opinions have convincingly demonstrated that there are considerable constitutional doubts about the policy's approach. On the one hand, trust in the willingness of employers to participate in the work of the commission is massively violated. Secondly, there is excessive interference in collective bargaining autonomy and occupational freedom.

The changes are accompanied by adjustments to mini- and midi-jobs. We welcome the increase in the limit for marginal employment to €520.00, which is essential in light of the minimum wage increase. We reject the additional burden on social security contributions imposed by employment in the so-called "sliding zone".

I urge the Federal Government:

• Protect the autonomy of collective bargaining.
• Respect the well-established procedures and the trust that has grown in the work of the Minimum Wage Commission.
• Avoid a far above-average increase in the fast-track procedure.
• Find a solution together with the Minimum Wage Commission.
• Take into account the turning point in social policy made necessary by the war in Ukraine.

• Avoid one-sided burdens by extending midi jobs.

Employers' President Dulger: Employers propose financial and social policy expert Prof. Werding for the German Council of Economic Experts

Berlin, May 12, 2022: "It is a good tradition that the social partners actively participate in the composition of the German Council of Economic Experts by making a nomination proposal. Unfortunately, Professor Volker Wieland has resigned his seat on the German Council of Economic Experts prematurely. We employers very much regret this step. With his extremely competent work, he has helped shape the Council's positions and provided important economic, monetary and financial policy impetus.

We have now proposed Professor Martin Werding from the Ruhr University Bochum to the Federal Government for the vacant seat on the Expert Council. Professor Werding's professional expertise is beyond question. He is a proven economist with a focus on financial and social policy. We combine our proposal with the expectation that our joint efforts will succeed in making the German Council of Economic Experts a renowned and generally accepted body for policy advice once again. This is indispensable, especially in these times."