Germany mulls opening job market to eastern Europeans

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Germany mulls opening job market to eastern Europeans

BERLIN (Thomson Financial) - Germany is considering loosening its employment restrictions on workers from EU member states in eastern Europe to plug a yawning labour gap in key sectors.
'If we continue to suffer from a labour shortage in Germany, we could consider lifting the limits on eastern European labour before 2009,' Gerd Andres, state secretary at the labour ministry, told the daily Hanoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.
He said Germany lacked staff both in highly qualified fields such as engineering as well as in the low-wage sector.
Government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said the issue would be considered at a cabinet planning session in late August and noted that Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling left-right coalition did not yet have a unified position.
A spokesman for the economy ministry said it had no fundamental objections to the proposal but added that allowing more eastern Europeans to take up German jobs could only be 'one facet' of a comprehensive solution to the labour gap.
'It needs to be reviewed, however, how many unemployed Germans could be trained for those jobs,' a labour ministry spokesman added at a regular government press conference.
During the European Union's 'big bang' enlargement of 2004 when 10 mostly eastern European states joined the bloc, Germany levelled a two-year restriction on citizens from the new member countries working here, fearing hordes of migrant workers could snap up jobs for low wages.
The German government extended the limits last year for an additional three years despite criticism from the corporate sector.
In May 2009, Berlin could extend the limits for another two years under EU rules if it can demonstrate that opening the labour market would be highly problematic for the German economy.
The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development recently recommended that the government ease the current restrictions on foreigners who want to work in Germany.
But that could raise hackles at home, particularly among Germany's powerful trade unions.
Germany began shaking off its economic malaise in early 2006 and hiring in large numbers.
Unemployment tumbled to its lowest level in 14 years in June, 8.8 percent, as the boom in the eurozone's biggest economy drove up demand for labour.
Analysts fear that a failure to find sufficient qualified workers and Germany's low birth rate and ageing population could hamper economic growth in the long run.
The labour office's monthly BA-X index, which measures the number of unfilled vacancies in industry, rose by 10 points to a record high of 214 points in June.
And the office calculated that a total 968,000 jobs currently remain vacant, 194,000 more than a year ago.



source: Germany mulls opening job market to eastern Europeans - Forbes.com