Between 2016 and 2026, Germany will need 100,000 more engineers in electrotechnology, electronics, and computer technology than will graduate from that nation’s universities and technical colleges. The report, published by the German Association for Electrical, Electronic, and Information  Technologies (VDE), bases this estimate on employment figures obtained for the period beginning in 2005 and ending in 2013. During that time, the number of new engineering positions increased by an average of 10,500 per year, while unemployment for engineers remained low—less than 2.5 percent.

The study also reports that during this eight-year period, the number of engineers graduating in Germany would have only covered new openings caused by engineers leaving the profession, mainly from retirement. This indicates that the yearly increase in job openings in industry has been filled by an influx of engineers from Southern Europe and other countries. In 2013, 10.6 percent of the total of 381.200 electrical engineers working in Germany were foreign nationals. Extrapolating from those statistics,…[Read more]