N-TV (Commercial German news media) came to tell an interesting story today. The focus? A lack of railway engineers.
As a kid, I always thought the job of being a train engineer was a dream job.
Here in Germany, the 'dream-status' is barely noted. Right now, when a engineer vacancy is noted....it's roughly 132 days before the vacancy is filled.
The regional networks have even reached the point where on occasion....they have to cancel a run because there's simply not an engineer to run the train. Sometimes, this goes on for weeks.
The issue is now extending out to the rest of the staff jobs....the electricians, the IT-support, the dispatch or controllers, etc. Recruitment programs are mostly in a crisis mood because they can't keep up with demand.
N-TV noted there are currently 912 vacant slots existing. If you went back five years ago, it would have been one-third that many.
The salary situation? If you were with the Bahn national railway folks....depending on your experience level, you'd be getting 38k to 45k Euro a year on salary. As a 'rookie', you'd probably be in the 25k range.
The thing is that the Bahn folks run a hefty training program. You end up in a three-year program, and it's geared to keep you on as a long-term employee.
The typical complaint? Long-hours and holiday time off. When they hand you the shift situation for the next month, and you notice that you are doing a lot of 5 AM start-up shifts, you typically get a bit frustrated. The same can be said if this were a 3 PM start-up episode.
The trend getting better? There's no indication of an improvement period coming.
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