Ageing Germany looks to India to fill job slots, from healthcare to IT to plumbing

Europe’s largest economy, Germany, has been dealing with a persistent shortage of skilled workers in sectors like healthcare and IT, among others. The crisis is driven by a decline in native Germans entering the workforce. Employers are now looking to plug the gaps with skilled workers from India.

Germany is grappling with a shortage of skilled workers, seemingly driven by long-term demographic decline. With an ageing population and very few young people entering the labour force, Europe’s largest economy is increasingly looking abroad to sustain its workforce. Among the countries stepping into this gap, India has emerged as a key partner.

The shift, as reported by the BBC, began modestly in 2021. Handirk von Ungern-Sternberg, then working with a trade body representing skilled crafts in South West Germany, received an unexpected e-mail from an Indian recruitment agency. “We have lots of young, motivated people looking for vocational training, and we’re wondering if you’re interested,” the message read. At the time, German employers were already struggling to fill vacancies. “We had a lot of desperate employers, who couldn’t find anyone to work for them,” von Ungern-Sternberg told the BBC. “So we decided to give it a chance.”