Overview
- Workers with an immigration history made up 60% in welding/connection technology and 54% among cooks and in food production, with high shares also in scaffolding (48%), bus and tram driving (47%) and meat processing (46%).
- In sectoral terms, 54% of all employees in gastronomy and 50% in building maintenance had an immigration history in 2024, compared with 26% across the overall workforce.
- Public-facing and state roles showed marked underrepresentation, including police (7%), public administration and social insurance (9% each), primary school teachers (9%), secondary teachers (12%), rescue services (8%) and justice administration (9%).
- Destatis uses the Federal Employment Agency’s shortage framework to classify occupations facing or at risk of skills gaps, and defines an immigration history as a person or both parents having moved to Germany since 1950.
- Findings are first results from the 2024 Microcensus, a roughly 1% sample based on self-reports and excluding people in communal accommodation, and experts from the WSI emphasize the need to improve pathways into public service and education.