The KfW-ifo Barometer of Skilled Workers: One in Five German Companies Is Currently Affected by a Shortage of Skilled Workers

In collaboration with KfW, the ifo Institute has developed a new indicator for the shortage of skilled labor based on the ifo Business Survey, which provides an up-to-date and clear description of the development of the bottleneck situation in the German economy and for various economic sectors, federal states, and company sizes. In Q1 2021, despite lockdowns, more companies again reported a shortage of skilled workers (20.6 percent) than in the previous quarter (19.3 percent). Especially in some service industries, this affects a high share of companies. In addition, the results show that SMEs, especially in manufacturing, are currently affected somewhat more frequently than large companies.