Crafts businesses short of staff

The crafts businesses in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg want to employ more personnel but well-qualified specialists are rare. In the competitive quest for these skilled personnel the businesses focus on further training.

The demand for skilled staff in crafts businesses is high. About a quarter of the 1,200 businesses questioned by the Baden-Württembergischer Handwerkstag (Baden-Württemberg Trade Association) want to employ more skilled personnel in the coming months, a development predominantly owing to the good economic situation.

Businesses in the construction industry and the finishing-construction sector in particular are in need of personnel, yet also the component suppliers and subcontractors, many of which had to lay off employees during the crisis, now urgently need to rehire. The severity of the situation is increased by the fact that, according to Trade Association estimates, some 80,000 employees entering into retirement either because of their age or for health reasons will require replacement over the course of the next five years.

In their battle against the lack of skilled staff the businesses focus in particular on providing further training for their own employees. "Most businesses have understood that a sufficient future supply of journeymen and master craftsmen can be achieved only by way of providing their own training schemes," says Joachim Möhrle, President of the Baden-Württemberg Trade Association.