Craftsmen assemble, build, maintain and repair. Around one million companies with 5.5 million self-employed and employees as well as around 360,000 apprentices are part of the skilled trades in Germany. But that’s not enough. The industry is currently in a triple crisis. And the customers get to feel it.
Anyone who needs a craftsman these days has to wait an average of eleven weeks. You even have to wait around four months for a builder. For urgent matters, only “do it yourself” can currently help. The industry is struggling with delivery bottlenecks, enormous price increases and a shortage of skilled workers – everything comes together.
Eleven weeks to four months, “those are record values,” said Holger Schwannecke, Secretary General of the Central Association of German Crafts. “Customers have to wait a long time.” And these waiting times are unlikely to decrease.
The situation in construction, which has been a stable economic anchor up to now, has worsened dramatically, said Schwannecke. “Work is coming to a standstill on many construction sites, there is a lack of spare parts in car workshops, and raw materials and preliminary products are missing from industrial suppliers to the trades.” Because price increases cannot be passed on to customers everywhere, offers for companies that have been calculated earlier are now often becoming a loss-making business.
Even if the supply chains started working again immediately and there were no longer any material shortages, the industry could grow by a maximum of 6 percent by the end of the year. But that eats up inflation completely, according to the ZDH official.
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The hope of the craft guilds that the corona crisis would be followed by a rapid recovery was gone at the latest when the war began in Ukraine. “Components for parquet and preliminary products for tiles come or came from the Ukraine, there is a lack of bitumen for road construction and roofs,” said Franz Xaver Peteranderl, President of the Bavarian Crafts Day.
In residential construction there are price increases of around 20 percent, said Peteranderl. In some municipalities, a quarter of the building applications will be withdrawn. “The first housing construction companies are already warning of an abrupt end to the construction boom in the coming year.” A year and a half ago, a single-family home cost 450,000 euros, but now it’s 550,000 euros, explains Schwannecke.
One of the biggest problems for craft businesses is and remains the lack of skilled workers. According to the central association, around 250,000 skilled workers are missing. This bottleneck, also caused “by a wrong education policy”, endangers economic growth and could “become a brake on transformation for our entire country,” said Schwannecke.
A decline in the number of apprentices in skilled trades has been observed for the past year. In 2002, more than half a million apprentices were still being trained in craft businesses. Last year the number shrank to around 360,000. This is the result of figures from the Central Association of German Crafts. Germany is currently a long way from around 633,000 apprentices in 1997, the highest number of apprentices in the trade in the past 31 years.
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But the shortage is not only becoming more and more noticeable in the trades. Industry and trade are also thirsty for young people. Manfred Schnabel, President of the Rhein-Neckar Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK), said on Monday: “Shortly before the start of the training year in September, there are currently 4,000 vacant apprenticeship positions in the chamber district. Give yourself a push, apply now,” he called out to the young people in Mannheim.
Schnabel is convinced that a change in awareness in schools and society is essential in order to bring supply and demand back into balance. He is particularly critical of high schools. There he sees little commitment to showing young people alternatives to studying. It is regrettable that hardly any teacher has seen a company from the inside. From politics he demands an end to the discussion about conscription, a mandatory year of service to society after school. The companies would thus lose a complete training year.
A look at the figures from the Federal Statistical Office shows that universities have enjoyed a steadily growing influx of students since 2002. In comparison: In the 2002/03 winter semester, the number of students at universities in Germany was around 2 million. Almost 3 million students were enrolled at a university in the 2020/21 winter semester.
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“Especially in the Mint professions of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology, the lack of specialists and trainees has been very great for years,” said Schnabel. At the end of May, 575 industrial and technical training contracts were agreed in the country’s second largest IHK district, a good 10 percent less than in the previous year. On the other hand, the number in the commercial sector increased slightly.
The trade sees the best opportunities for young professionals: According to the President of the Mannheim Rhein-Neckar-Odenwald Chamber of Trades, Klaus Hofmann, 12,500 trades companies across Germany, 1,650 of them in the south-west, are looking for a successor in the next five years. With around 512 vacant apprenticeships, the level is well above the pre-Corona period of 278.
The Bavarian crafts president Peteranderl emphasizes that a master craftsman earns no less in his working life than an academic – and in crafts you can “actively help shape the energy transition instead of just debating it”.
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And the IHK and Chamber of Crafts are convinced that girls in particular have great potential. Claudia Orth, education expert at the Chamber of Crafts, also makes the schools responsible. In order to exploit this potential, more practice- and application-oriented teaching in schools would be necessary, she says. It is unfortunate that hairdressing has been the most popular apprenticeship for girls for 30 years. The emancipatory claim “We can do it too” with entry into “men’s jobs” has fallen behind. In 2021, the number of contracts concluded with young women was 312 in the Chamber of Crafts district and 1331 with young men.
If you are urgently looking for a craftsman for your house or apartment, you have to get creative. Because an average of eleven weeks or even up to four months of waiting time are now a reality.
The best way to get to a craftsman in a timely manner is to use digital providers in addition to the classic routes via the yellow pages or local chambers of crafts. On the “My Hammer” portal, consumers can find specialists of all kinds nationwide. The promise: A craftsman will be found quickly and simply mediated. A “Price Radar” provides an overview of the costs and prices of the services.
The magazine “Das Haus!” compares the five most important portals for finding tradespeople on its website – and takes a close look at prices, fees, trades and payment options.
In addition to “My Hammer”, there are numerous other portals such as “wirsindcraft.de” and “blauarbeit.de” where it can be worth looking for available craftsmen.
