A Reality Check on Assistant Jobs

Those who start their working lives without a vocational qualification often find themselves at a dead end.

Work as an unskilled laborer or in the low-wage sector quickly becomes a dead end rather than a stepping stone to advancement in the labor market, as a recent study by the Bertelsmann Foundation shows. In Germany, approximately 4.6 million workers are now classified as low-skilled—17% more than before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Nearly one in five people in this group is unemployed, a rate six times higher than that of people with vocational training.

The unemployment rate and job prospects are particularly dire in specific industries. In sales and property security, there are in some cases more unemployed unskilled workers than regular employees, meaning that job prospects in these sectors for low-skilled workers are truly bleak.

But there is a way out. Those who pursue further training to become skilled workers significantly reduce their risk of unemployment, and in sectors such as retail and horticulture, targeted partial qualifications—rather than a full vocational training program—are sufficient for career advancement.

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