Tuesday, November 6, 2018

The Jobs Story

Generally, if you had open jobs.....you'd fill them....except in Germany.

ARD, the public TV network (Channel One) discussed this story last night.

Right now....there's roughly 1.24 million jobs in Germany....unfilled.  Remember, there's a population of 82-million.

The big issue?  Simply not enough skilled workers.

The data comes from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).

They are even projecting a growth from this quarter of 2017.....of about 140k vacant jobs.

The high impact area suffering?  The manufacturing sector.  There's been an increase of about one-third vacant positions over the past year.

Most countries would be all tied up and working around the clock to fill the vacant positions.  In this case, the people don't exist....unless you can go and hustle up folks to move from region of the country to another.....or you convince long-term unemployed folks to go and 'retrain'. 

There's another story by ARD....on the long-term unemployed fitting into this problem.

The government has gone out and found four billion Euro (roughly 5 billion US dollars) to take tens of thousands of the long-term unemployed (on German welfare) and feed them through some system where they get the job and life skills.....to be marketable.  The gameplan?  Well....they talk of 150,000 people that they can take off Hartz IV (the welfare program).

Personally, I'd have some doubts because a lot of these people need not only job-skills, but a rehab program or a coaching program.  Those who've been unemployed for a couple of years might benefit greatly....those unemployed for ten to twenty years?  I just don't see them eagerly wanting to get into the program. 


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