Engineering labor market 2021Full steam ahead back into the skills shortage?
The agonizingly long-lasting coronavirus pandemic has also caused the job market for engineers to freeze in many places, but it has not come to a complete standstill, as a survey of recruiters shows. Will there be a race to catch up?
The outlook for engineers? Bright!
Axel Plünnecke is a labor market expert at the German Economic Institute in Cologne. "Due to demographics, digitalization and decarbonization, the demand for computer scientists and electrical engineers is likely to increase significantly in the coming years. Particularly at the interfaces of decarbonization, e-mobility and digitalization, cross-sectional skills that combine IT and engineering expertise will become important. Domestic potential alone will not be enough to meet demand. The corona crisis is having a doubly unfavorable effect here. The number of first-year students from abroad is falling. In the long term, the school closures could cause a decline in the STEM skills of students, which will put a strain on the domestic potential for securing skilled workers."