Nearshoring to Eastern Europe as solution to the EU labor shortage

“Outsourcing to Eastern Europe as solution to EU labor shortage”, is a study prepared by “Nearshoring Blog” to discuss the current issues of the EU largest economies associated with the lack of qualified hi-tech specialists as well as labor restrictions and multicultural issues that prevent countries from immigration of foreign work.

Another part of study updates the perspective of Eastern European countries for providing nearshore outsourcing services, and their possibilities to fill the gap in increasing labor shortage inside the European Union.

The study consist of the following sections:

1. Germany - EU largest economy needs 400,000 high-tech specialists
2. Economic Recovery
3. Lack of specialists
4. Immigration - not welcomed
5. Offshore Outsourcing? No, look closer!
6. Why outsource? Why just don’t attract people from other EU member states?
7. Nearshore Outsourcing. Win-Win solution

and provides latest statistical data and trends on Germany labor market in general, and IT specialists market in particular. In this post we presented a part of the study, while the full version is available in PDF format here


Part I. Germany – EU largest economy

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Germany - EU largest economy needs 400,000 high-tech specialists

In the first chapter of series we decided to start from Germany - the EU largest and most technological economy. The country which has been crying out for skilled hi-tech specialists and engineers for years, yet opposing to the idea of attracting foreign labor.

Economic Recovery

The country steadily emerges from the crisis and sees record growth of 3.3 percent. Booming demand for Germany cars and technologies from Asia, particularly China - world’s largest consumer market strengthen country’s export indicators.

The experts confirmed that Germany is one the raise. The third quarter of 2010 indicated a massive trade surplus, grew nearly 9 percent. German consumer confidence shows stabilization as well. The index is set to come in at high 4.9 points for November, which is almost in line with economists’ forecast of 5.2 points.

However, according to latest labor market surveys the EU largest economy and world’s major exporter is in desperate need for skilled specialists and engineers across sectors, with greatest need in hi-tech sphere with overall 400000 positions unfulfilled in the field.

A survey conducted for the sector WirtschaftsWoche magazine revealed that a high percentage of the 450 businesses questioned for the poll said they had declined contracts during the first half of 2010 because they did not have enough staff to take on the extra work.

“The lack of labour is developing into a dangerous brake on growth, particularly for small and medium-sized companies,” said Marie-Christine Ostermann, chairwoman of the employers’ association Young Businesses-BJU, which co-commissioned the survey.

Please access the full version of the study in PDF format here