- 16 minutes ago
Find out which jobs are in demand in Germany and what it takes to build a working life there. This practical guide explores opportunities in IT, skilled trades, nursing and caregiving, childcare, and medicine, then explains how job searches and work permits differ for EU and non-EU citizens.
It also covers German job platforms, trade unions, unemployment support, pension contributions, and whether you need to speak German to get hired. A useful overview for anyone researching working in Germany, moving abroad for a job, or comparing employment rights and social benefits across countries.
It also covers German job platforms, trade unions, unemployment support, pension contributions, and whether you need to speak German to get hired. A useful overview for anyone researching working in Germany, moving abroad for a job, or comparing employment rights and social benefits across countries.
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TravelTranscript
00:00welcome back to part 2 of all you need to know about working in Germany if you
00:05haven't watched part 1 I highly recommend to do so otherwise you will
00:09have only half the information right in part 2 now we are going to talk about
00:14high-demand jobs how to get those jobs as European and non-European where to
00:19find those jobs we're also going to talk about pension unemployment worker unions
00:25and some questions from you are you ready let's go
00:37the German news and the government is always throwing around those crazy
00:41numbers that in 2030 this many jobs are missing in this kind of field so I'm
00:46gonna give you a few examples of the jobs that are in highest demand right now and
00:50in the future let's start the first kind of jobs that Germany has a huge shortage
00:55of is IT professionals at the moment there are over 100,000 open positions
01:01for IT professionals from software developers to cyber security expert to
01:06IT project managers you name it and the companies have been already very active
01:11in recruiting skilled workers from abroad so in Berlin I've seen a lot of people
01:16coming from Pakistan from India from Russia especially for this kind of jobs it's
01:21not gonna get less it's just gonna get more because Germany is very
01:25working on its digitalisierung
01:32Germany has always been behind in the IT sector and they're finally catching up but
01:38they don't have enough people to work in this field so they need to import them if
01:42you're a skilled software developer you can expect in the four or five thousand
01:46euro a month and salary it's way above the national average so it's a good
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03:02money-back guarantee you're welcome another field where there's a lot of open
03:07jobs is the handyman area I'm not sure if this is the right word but people who
03:11work as electricians or in sanitary and heating mechanics for this kind of jobs
03:17there has been a shortage of people for the last 10 years it's impossible to get
03:22an appointment with the handyman you always have to wait for months and the
03:26statistics say that there's at the moment over 60,000 open positions for this
03:31kind of jobs you can expect a monthly salary between 2,800 and 3,600 euro a month
03:44another job with very bleak predictions is the one of a caregiver a nurse caring for
03:50our old people or in a hospital there's already a shortage of 30,000 caregivers in
03:56Germany and the numbers are gonna get worse and worse each year because the
04:02German demographic permit looks like this there's more old people than young
04:05people and every year more people are joining nursing homes so they need more
04:10people to take care of them and there's gonna be a mass shortage so if you can
04:14imagine to work in this kind of job please come to Germany and take care of
04:19our elders and as a nurse and caregiver you can expect a salary between two and
04:24three thousand euro a month the next one is quite paradox but Germany has also a
04:29shortage of people working in children day cares so early child educators there's
04:34not enough people who want to work there and even though Germany has a very low
04:38birth rate there's not enough people in this field the estimation is that by 20
04:4230 200,000 open positions will be in this kind of field so if you like to work
04:47with children you can be sure if you come to Germany you will get a job in a
04:52children daycare and you can expect a monthly salary of two and a half thousand
04:56euro a month which isn't too bad next another job which will have massive
05:01shortages in the next few years is the one of a doctor 45% of all doctors in
05:07Germany are above the age of 65 so in the next few years they're all gonna go
05:12into pension and there's gonna be a mass shortage so if you want to become a
05:16doctor Germany has a lot of open positions in the next years and doctors
05:22are earning good salary here so the average salary would be seven thousand
05:26euro a month you can have a very good life from that in the cities the
05:30situation is already pretty bleak but it's even worse in the villages because
05:35in Germany all the young people are moving to the city they don't want to
05:38live in the villages in the small towns they want to have action and there's not
05:42enough doctors for all the old people in the villages so if you can imagine
05:46doing that move to the German village and become a doctor yeah okay now you know
05:52which jobs are in highest demand let's move on to finding a job depending on
05:57where you are from it might be very easy or very hard for you to start working in
06:02Germany if you are from the European Union you have it very easy you can just
06:06go to Germany and start working no permits required if you are from outside the
06:11European Union it gets a little bit more tricky you will need a working
06:15permit and maybe even a visa German laws regarding foreigners working in
06:19Germany are like this the higher qualified you are the easier it is for you to
06:23get a work and residency permit that's very unfortunate for low skilled labor
06:27jobs I know but they also have very good chances if they are looking for jobs in
06:32those high demand fields I mentioned if you are from one of those countries here
06:35you can just come to Germany without a visa look for a job on location and then
06:40apply for residency pretty easy if you are not from one of those countries you
06:44probably have to find a job even before ever coming to Germany and only then you
06:49can apply for the visa but Germany is very eager to get workers from abroad there are
06:53many different ways it can be done there are visas for IT professionals
06:58visas for job seekers visas for studying and training though providing all this
07:03information in this video would be way too much it would take hours alone but if
07:07you're interested in knowing more about this go to make it in Germany.com there
07:12you will find all the information you may need regarding this they will even
07:16tell you what your chances are for whatever you are looking for so go have a look at
07:20that what's also important to do even before thinking of coming to Germany is
07:25to see if your foreign qualification is even accepted in Germany you can do that
07:30pretty easy by filling in all the data here online on this official government
07:34website and they will immediately tell you if your degree qualifies and if not
07:38what you need to do next one interesting question of viewers was what happens if you
07:44lose your job do you need to go back to your country well that depends on what kind of
07:48visa you have but for most people from outside the European Union it means that
07:53you have three months to find a new job and if you don't manage to find a job in
07:56three months then you probably have to leave but you can still apply for a job
08:01seeker visa which would give you another six months another thing worth
08:04mentioning is that Germany has a working holiday visa program that means that
08:08anyone from outside the European Union from those countries here between the age of
08:1318 and 31 can get a working holiday visa that means that you can pretty easily
08:18come here work a bit or not and see if you even like it here I myself two years
08:24of working holiday visas abroad one in Australia and one in Japan and if you
08:28have the opportunity to do this do it it's awesome you'll learn a lot about a
08:33foreign culture and how things work in a different country so if you're lucky
08:36enough to be from one of those countries go play now all right we talked a lot
08:41about work and jobs but you still don't know where to look for them so in
08:46Germany we have a few platforms that are used more than others but the biggest one
08:50is the one from the government the arbeitsagentur or job center you can just
08:55register there and look for all the jobs that are available and there's a lot of
08:59supervisors who can help you find a job give you advice on whatever you might need
09:04the biggest private platforms that are used in Germany are LinkedIn and StepStone
09:10so definitely check them out if you don't already have and for all couch
09:14potatoes out there there's also the possibility to register with recruitment
09:19firms many big companies hire headhunters to look for people so if you're on
09:23their list it can't hurt there's of course countless more platforms you can
09:28use but those are the biggest ones so good luck finding a job let's move on
09:34to trade unions the thing every employer hates trade unions are a pretty big thing
09:40in Germany around 20% of all employees here are members in one if you don't
09:44know what a trade union is it's an association of workers who collectively
09:48stand up to their employers to fight for their worker rights better working
09:53conditions higher pay and so on every time there's a strike in Germany and you
09:57have to walk again to work because the buses or trains aren't coming you can be
10:00sure the strike was organized by a trade union trade unions are especially helpful
10:05for foreigners who most of the time have little understanding of their rights here
10:09in Germany joining a trade union has many benefits from general support and
10:14advice to negotiating better pay to enforcing your worker rights there are
10:19different trade unions for different industries of course but for example if
10:22your contract that you signed with your employer says that you earn 2,000 euro a
10:26month in salary and have 20 days of holidays each year but the trade unions
10:30already negotiated for that industry some labor contracts saying that for this
10:35kind of job you get 3,000 euro in pay and 30 days of holidays each year you can
10:40make use of this labor contracts and your original working contract will
10:44automatically change into the trade union contract with the better conditions
10:48but of course you can only make use of this if you are a member of the trade
10:52union if you're not member you cannot have this better contract but how much
10:56will it cost to be member you ask well standing up to your worker rights like
11:00that will cost you around one percent of your gross salary how does that sound
11:06is that worth it only you can answer this question next unemployment one of
11:12every Berliners favorite topic
11:20despite of all that Germany has one of the lowest unemployment rates in all of
11:25Europe standing at 3.1% and even if you're unemployed here you don't have to
11:30worry about sleeping under a bridge or staying hungry since Germany is a social
11:34state you will have a pretty decent life even without a job everybody who's
11:38working also has to pay for unemployment insurance and if you lose your job this
11:43unemployment insurance kicks in and you will still get money each month if you
11:47become unemployed you will have to go to the agent for arbeit or job center where
11:51they will take all your details and assign you a supervisor who will help you to
11:56find a new job there are two types of unemployment benefits ALG one and two
12:01ALG one is the better one but you will only get it if you have worked for a
12:06certain amount of time in the last three years in general you can say that if you
12:10have worked for more than twelve months in the last three years you are
12:14entitled to six months of ALG one benefits and if you have worked for more
12:19than 24 months you will get it for a full year but how much will you get well
12:24depending on if you have children you will get between 60 and 67% of your net
12:29salary so if your net salary was two and a half thousand euro a month for you
12:34will get at least one and a half thousand euro in unemployment benefits and
12:38here it really doesn't matter if you're German European or from somewhere else as
12:43long as you've worked in Germany and you paid into this insurance you will get
12:47those unemployment benefits what's also worth mentioning is that your health
12:50insurance is also fully covered during the time so no worries about that and
12:55then there's ALG two also called hard sphere this one isn't limited by time you
13:01can potentially get it for the rest of your life I've already made a whole video
13:06about hard sphere so if you're interested in knowing more about this here's
13:10the video link check it out the only thing that I didn't mention in that
13:13video is that not every foreigner can easily get it so doesn't matter if you're
13:19European or from somewhere else you have to have lived in Germany for at least
13:23five years to be entitled to it it's a great system altogether but of course
13:28there are also people who are taking advantage of the system in Berlin alone it
13:32is estimated that criminal organizations are skimming hundreds of
13:36millions of euros of the system each year alright let's talk a little bit about
13:42pension pension insurance is obligatory in Germany when you work you have to pay
13:47into the pension fund right and in Germany that's 20% of your gross salary
13:52that's a lot of money that's money you cannot use it's going into the pension
13:56fund you won't see that money until you are going into pension which is at the
14:02moment the age of 67 but they are already discussing to raise this number to
14:06the age of 70 who needs to have free time when they're all right just work
14:11until you're dead and as I told you the workforce in Germany is shrinking there's
14:17not enough young people pay for the pensions of the old people so the
14:21government is actually losing billions of euros each year just to keep the
14:25system alive and even if you're already into pension and you worked your whole
14:29life paid your whole life into this fund it's probably not enough to have a good
14:33life for the average German who earned like two or three thousand euro a month
14:37when you're in pension you probably get less than one and a half thousand euro a
14:41month out of it so that's not really a comfortable life you can just cover all
14:46the basics and guess what you even have to pay taxes on your pension so if you're
14:52working in Germany don't rely on the pension fund you have to do your own
14:56investments buy your own house or flat or something for your old age anyway
15:02talking about pension at the moment doesn't make much sense in my opinion
15:05because it's gonna collapse anyway and we all have to work until we're dead
15:10that's what the government wants because the longer we work the more taxes we need
15:15to pay right but someone asked a very interesting question that is what if you
15:20want to emigrate and spend the rest of the old days in another country will you
15:24still get your pension living abroad well it depends a little if you would choose a
15:29country that is in the European Union that's no problem at all you will get
15:33your normal pension and health insurance as you would in Germany but if you want
15:37to live in a country outside of the European Union it gets a little bit more
15:41tricky if you are moving to a country Germany has a social security agreement
15:45with you will also usually get your full pension with health insurance though if
15:50you choose a country which is not on that list you will still get your German
15:53pension but the taxation of it will most likely change because pension income is
15:58seen as taxable income and depending on a tax agreement Germany has with this
16:02country you might be taxed double first by Germany and secondly by the country of
16:07your choice another issue is that you might lose your claim to health insurance
16:11which is probably not the best considering the old age but that doesn't
16:15hinder German pension years to move abroad it's actually a very popular thing to
16:19do at the moment there are almost 2 million German pension years living abroad
16:24people aren't only escaping to get better weather but also to have a better
16:28quality of life because even if your German pension might not be enough to live
16:33comfortably in Germany it may enable you to live very comfortable in another
16:38country let's answer one more question before we wrap it up the most common
16:42question of you was do you need to speak German or is English enough to find a
16:47job in Germany I would say it really depends on where you want to work in
16:51Germany and what kind of job you want to do if you want to work in Berlin you
16:55don't necessarily need to speak German if you want to work in the countryside
16:59you will have to learn German for sure but I would say the industry where it is
17:04easiest to get a job without German is the IT sector and it's a good thing that
17:09there's 100,000 positions open right but even there you can be sure if you
17:14speak German your chance are higher because then there's more possibilities on
17:19what you can do here so to sum it all up Germans get over a month of holiday each
17:24year don't want to work in physical labor jobs anymore don't have to come to
17:28work if they feel a little bit sick get up to two years of parental leave have to
17:33take breaks every few hours and now they don't even want to come into office
17:38anymore if that doesn't sound lazy I don't know what does but anyway how does
17:44that all sound to you would you want to work in Germany is this all worse or
17:49better than in your country until next time see you soon