Considering the aging population in Germany, the German Federal Administration predicted the risk of intensifying the labor crisis for this country in the coming years, even with the import of immigrant labor.
“Spiegel” weekly newspaper wrote in an article: Germany is rapidly aging. To compete, companies need more workers from abroad. According to population researchers, the number of working-age people in Germany will fall sharply despite immigration – especially in eastern Germany. The Federal Statistical Office of Germany found in a study that labor will be scarce in the next few years and decades, especially in this region, and there will soon be a shortage of hundreds of thousands of workers. Accordingly, despite immigration, a significant decrease in the number of people of working age can be expected. West Germany is also affected by this problem, although to a lesser extent.
In West Germany, if immigration remains high, the number of people of working age may decrease slightly by 680,000 or two percent by 2043. If immigration is low, these people will decrease by 4.7 million people (minus eleven percent). On the other hand, in Berlin, according to forecasts, with high immigration, an increase of up to 14% to 2.75 million people is possible in the next 20 years.
These figures, which are based on the 15th Population Forecast, show how severe the decline really is, and that it depends more than anything on the future rate of immigration.
Stephen Coates, head of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), said that Germany is not alone in its demographic development. According to him, similar problems have arisen in large parts of the world economy. “The competition to attract global talent is getting tougher – growth-enhancing policies that make the place more attractive for qualified immigration and investment are needed,” he said.
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