Sounds like its a problem everywhere, not just the states.
Two people I know have been let go (pumps and wood sectors resp.). Another (metal construction) is getting barely more than minimum wage. There's only one dude (chemical engineer) who is doing well (nearing 100k at 5 years work experience). The others are getting by.
Politicians are still complaining about Fachkräftemangel, skilled labor shortage, but it's really a wage slave shortage.
Why is this German word thrown in without any explanation? I’ve noticed this is a common trend whenever a Germany-adjacent topic is discussed.
The short version is that there is a shortage of skilled workers that absolutely requires immigrants to fill the gaps. However when you look around there isn’t really a shortage; people just aren’t willing to work for little pay. The English term implies that there is an actual shortage.
It might please you to know just how much English other languages are peppered with.
It's probably true if you own the company, but there's also disgruntled folks who apparently got treated like shit during their apprenticeship and who snicker at their former employers or dissuade would-be prospects when their field isn't doing well (boohoo poor Porsche drivers) or when they try to advertise a craft. At least the YT comments under several blue collar documentaries/adverts say so, but I know none personally.
Then there's an ongoing crisis in construction due to widespread financing problems (need two decently paid full time earners, no kids, to afford it with some certainty and no 30+ year debt slavery at least around where I live) and assorted crafts.
An electrician friend is doing okay, but not exactly great, at barely more than 40k pre-tax per year. Another one who is farmer on the side (can't afford to live from it) makes about as much in his profession (mechanic). I.e. forget single earner family and/or mortgage.
It's difficult to gauge accurately, because statistics are complicated and/or shit and/or biased, the employment situation highly depends on region and field and things seem to be changing at a crazy pace, not least caused by the recent economic shocks (war, COVID, a decade+ of QE), problems with funding pensions/bad demography, increasing competition in core industries, high energy prices and political indecisiveness. How much each factor contributes remains a mystery to me. Wealth m/billionaires seem to be growing fine.
Personally I'm more and more convinced there's no conspiracy and things really are as bad... The Japanification of Germany. At least our debt isn't as high yet.
> Politicians are still complaining about Fachkräftemangel,
These two things can be, and in fact are right now true at the same time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_unemployment
Everyone coming from an ex-Warsaw-Pact country most probably already lived through that before. We've entered the market economy (and stopped the play-pretend) with huge unemployment and lack of skilled workers at the same time.
Related or not (Covid was a big shock after all), "rich" countries have been living way over their means for many decades now (in terms of natural resources). It's particularly wild to see people calling for a return to the "norm" that were the post-WW2 decades : that wasn't a "norm", that was the fastest growth period that mankind had ever seen (and probably will ever see) !
So now (since the 1970s) we are way over due for a correction... which is probably going to look like a few centuries of recession with a few good years (for some maybe even good decades) thrown in here and there.
I see a lot of amazing people struggling in the market right now. This is mirrored by a general slowdown in actual project spend by businesses.
Locally, there has been a very very minor uptick in activity prior to Christmas which is a historically weird time for that to happen, so I’m slightly optimistic for the new year.
But the last 12 months have been very tough.