Germany Is Running Out of Workers, Putting Growth in Jeopardy
Europe’s largest economy may see growth limited to 1% a year for decades
The Schuko manufacturing plant in Bad Laer, Germany, on May 26.
Photographer: Ben Kilb/Bloomberg
As his workers raced to meet a recent deadline, Andre Schulte-Suedhoff did something he hadn’t done in more than 20 years — he joined the production line at his factory near Munster and spent his weekend screwing together air-filter equipment.
“That’s quite bizarre,” the 46-year-old executive said in an interview last month. But with the 200-strong workforce short of as many as 15 staff and financial penalties due if they failed to deliver, there was no other option, he said. For Schulte-Suedhoff’s family-owned firm, Schuko, and thousands of others across Germany, such bottlenecks are becoming increasingly common and increasingly damaging.