Bertelsmann Foundation Job Monitor: These professions are in high demand in Germany

Which professions are currently in high demand, how is the number of job advertisements developing in a particular region, and which soft skills are mentioned most often? All this data is collected by the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Job Monitor, which examines the development of various factors in job advertisements on a monthly basis.

In May 2024, it showed that the profession of sales specialist is currently the most in demand, with around 28,000 job advertisements. The most frequently mentioned soft skill is commitment (56.1% of ads), and proportionally, the most new jobs are advertised in Brandenburg (Havel) (426 job searches per 10,000 inhabitants).

In addition to these monthly evaluations, the monitor regularly focuses on various sub-topics. A short analysis of the development of home office opportunities since 2019 has now been published. Overall, it showed that the proportion of job advertisements explicitly mentioning home office opportunities was five times higher in 2023 (17.6%) than in 2019 (3.7%). The proportion is particularly high for jobs for experts (31.9%) and specialists (28.0%), and least common for unskilled and semi-skilled workers (3.1%).

A regional analysis also shows a strong urban-rural divide: While around a quarter of all jobs in large cities allow for working from home (26.1%), the proportion in rural areas is less than 10%. The “home office capital” is Düsseldorf with 34.1%, followed by Frankfurt/Main (33.6%) and Munich (32.0%).

Similar differences can also be seen in the breakdown by occupation: While foreign language teachers (72%), insurance brokers (60.2%), and mathematics experts (53.6%) have high percentages of home office work, the figures are extremely low for skilled trades such as meat processing (0.2%), food production (0.3%), and metal construction (0.4%). However, given the nature of these occupations, the figures are entirely understandable.

We were also interested in the following topics:

• Labor exploitation: Although it is unclear how many cases of criminally relevant labor exploitation there are in Germany, it is well known that they still exist and how the blackmail mechanisms work. A new study by the Hans Böckler Foundation provides information on this.

• Ecological transformation: What challenges do companies face in the transformation to a climate-friendly economy? This is examined in an analysis by the Institute for Employment Research.

• AI in the workplace: The use of AI can make work easier and faster. At the same time, however, it can also have negative consequences, as the IMF warns. Find out more in Handelsblatt (€).

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