According to the current KfW-ifo Skilled Workers Barometer, 44% of companies complained in April 2022 that their business activities were impaired due to a lack of skilled personnel – the service sector is the most affected at around 48%, and the shortage of skilled workers in the manufacturing sector is higher than it has been for 30 years. But also in the construction sector, there is a shortage of skilled personnel in 36% of companies. At the same time, a new survey by KfW Research showed that half of 18-67-year-olds in Germany are in favour of more immigration of skilled workers. This means that the shortage of skilled workers has reached a new peak. It can be seen that large companies (45%) are affected more often than small and medium-sized enterprises (43%). At the same time, demographic change is having a clearly noticeable impact on the labour market situation in Germany: the proportion of employed persons in the population is expected to continue to decline over the next 10 years, by around 500,000 people (approx. 1%) per year.