German companies are struggling to find skilled workers to increase production and the shortage of manpower is costing the economy up to 0.9 percentage points of output a year, the IW German Economic Institute has said. German companies are struggling to find skilled workers to increase production and the shortage of manpower is costing the economy up to 0.9 percentage points of output a year, the IW German Economic Institute has said. But an unusually long economic growth cycle, now in its ninth year, coupled with a shortage of working-age people, mean firms are running out of suitable staff. Even if German managers were to hire all suitably qualified unemployed people, there would still be some 400.000 vacancies, the IW institute estimated. Since companies expanding their workforce also tend to increase investment in machinery and equipment, overall output would be 0.9 percentage points higher in the medium term, it said.

Source: Irish Independent April 17, 2018 01:30 UTC