In this interview, Christian Dustmann discusses current opportunities and challenges for the German labour market. The interview covers a wide range of topics such as the differences between labour migration and refugee migration, the flexibilisation of working conditions to attract and retain...

The COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war mark a turning point for the German labour market. These crises accelerate transformative forces that have been at work for some time, such as digitalisation and decarbonisation, and are likely to permanently change the international division of labour...

Increasing labour shortages are mainly due to demographic developments - specifically the baby boom in Germany, with a strong peak in the early 1960s. Despite strong immigration in recent years, the ratio of 20-24 year-olds to 60-64 year-olds was only 75 to 100 in 2021, and if younger cohorts...

With 1.9 million vacancies available to 2.3 million registered unemployed persons, parity in the German labour market has almost been achieved. Such parity however may produce labour shortages that go far beyond small bottlenecks, which are limited to particular regions and industries. In the...