Saxony in transition: Foreign employees are shaping the labor market

Saxony in transition: Foreign employees are shaping the labor market

The number of employees with a foreign passport in Saxony has recorded a notable increase over the last ten years. While around 32,300 foreign workers were still working in jobs subject to social security contributions in 2014, this number rose to a good 141,600 by the end of June 2024. This represents a quadrupling, increasing the proportion of foreign employees from 2.1% to 8.6%, as diesachsen.de reported.

Companies in Saxony are more dependent than ever on international workers. Over 22% of companies already employ employees from abroad; the number of such companies has doubled since 2015. In total, around 131,000 foreigners now work in Saxony, often in sectors such as transport, hospitality and healthcare. The proportion of foreigners is particularly high in the hospitality industry at 50% and in logistics at 31%. These trends are part of a comprehensive statistical analysis by the Federal Employment Agency, which shows that the proportion of foreigners in Saxon employment is the highest to date, while the majority of these workers work in qualified positions.

Where are foreign employees most often located?

In Saxony, the highest proportion of foreign employees are in the Görlitz district with 12.5%, followed by Leipzig with 10.8% and Northern Saxony with 10.1%. In contrast, the proportions in the Erzgebirge (5.8%) and Central Saxony (5.9%) are rather low. Despite the increasing proportion of foreign workers, many companies are struggling with challenges such as language barriers, cultural differences and legal uncertainties, which can make integration difficult.

Constant emigration threatens the shortage of skilled workers

But there are also downsides: tens of thousands of foreigners move away from Saxony every year, which could further exacerbate the shortage of skilled workers on the labor market. Economics Minister Martin Dulig estimates that around 150,000 international workers will be needed by 2030 to fill the gaps. The number of departures rose from 15,065 in 2010 to 28,506 in 2022. The decline is not only due to migration to other federal states, but also to refugee Ukrainians, who are putting additional strain on the labor market, such as wirtschaft-in-sachsen.de reported.

A study by the Federal Employment Agency shows that a quarter of those surveyed leave Germany because of non-recognized qualifications or a lack of suitable positions, while others emigrate for residency reasons. Discrimination against highly qualified specialists is cited as another factor leading to emigration.

Looking into the future

The bottom line is that Saxon employers depend on foreign employees to compensate for the demographically-related decline in German employees. In order to reverse this trend and retain skilled workers in the long term, numerous measures are required. In addition to improving the recognition of foreign qualifications, language courses and cultural integration offerings should also be expanded to encourage immigrants to stay. An appeal to politicians also calls for cross-border commuters to be taken into account and for stationary border controls to be abolished, which place additional burdens on workers. This proves to be necessary in order to make the labor market of the future in Saxony stable and diverse, as the current statistical evaluation shows Federal Employment Agency shows.