Job vacancies peak in Germany

A latest survey has showed that the number of job vacancies is at a record high for Germany for the first quarter of 2017, local media reported Wednesday.

According to the survey presented by the German Institute for Employment Research (IAB) on Tuesday, there are 1,064,000 job vacancies available on the German employment market for the first quarter this year.

This represents an increase of 9,000, compared to the former record high of 1,055,000 in the fourth quarter of 2016, and an increase of 75,000, compared to the first quarter of 2016.

The data are provided by a representative company survey of around 8,000 employers conducted quarterly by the IAB. The survey includes vacancies unreported to the unemployment office.

The gap in job vacancies between west and east Germany is significant, the survey shows. There were 824,000 vacancies in west Germany and 240,000 in east Germany during Q1 2017.

Twenty percent of the openings do not require any vocational education, 64 percent require the completion of on the job training and 16 percent require a finished university education.

"Small and medium-sized companies in particular are searching for trained employees with a professional education," said IAB Head of labor market research Alexander Kubis.

Both job vacancies and employment in Germany are at a record high.

The main reason for this is the "very good economic situation currently in Germany and the corresponding increase in demand for additional personnel," Kubis told Xinhua.

While the rate of unemployment of 5.8 percent is lower than during the past 25 years, an "increasing number among the remaining unemployed people have multiple placement obstacles and find it difficult to enter the labor market even in good economic times", said Kubis. Endit