5 min read
More applications, fewer vacancies: finding staff ought to be getting easier for companies. Yet many businesses are experiencing something quite different. A job advert may attract plenty of applications, but the experience, the salary expectations or the key knowledge they are looking for are missing. At the same time, people who are open to a career change cannot find a suitable position. How does that add up?
The latest figures make this tension visible. According to the IAB Job Vacancy Survey, there were around one million vacancies across Germany in the second quarter of 2026. That was about eleven per cent fewer than in the previous quarter. In August, according to the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit), 3.061 million people were registered as unemployed. These figures measure different things over different periods. Taken together, however, they show that a larger available labour supply does not automatically solve specific hiring problems.
Finding specialists: the problem is fit
A closer look at shortage occupations explains why. The skills shortage analysis of the Federal Employment Agency identifies 157 occupational categories with shortages for 2025. Care, healthcare, construction and the skilled trades were among those particularly affected. Roughly every second vacancy for qualified staff registered with the agency was in a shortage occupation. At the same time, only about one in five unemployed specialists was looking for work in such an occupation.
That is not a contradiction: people and vacancies are distributed differently across occupations and regions. In addition, certain requirements can limit people's interest in changing jobs, such as shift work, limited mobility or poor prospects of career development. The statistics describe the market as a whole. Whether a particular company succeeds in hiring someone often comes down to how a specific role is designed.
For mid-sized employers (the German Mittelstand), this means that job adverts with an endless list of mandatory criteria may reach applicants but needlessly exclude suitable people. Anyone who wants to fill a position should first clarify which skills are needed from day one and what can be learned within a reasonable time.
Rethinking job profiles: which skills are really needed?
Start with the tasks that will actually arise in the first six months. Which knowledge is essential for them? Where can induction and training help? Instead of making a particular previous job title a requirement, it is worth describing transferable skills.
A clear profile also improves selection interviews. Define a few verifiable criteria and ask about specific work situations: how did a person solve a problem? What did they learn from it? If necessary, ask for a short, fair work sample. That makes visible what the candidates can actually do.
This does not mean lowering requirements arbitrarily. In regulated occupations, such as care, formal qualifications are indispensable. That is precisely why companies should distinguish clearly between where a qualification is mandatory and where they have put up additional hurdles themselves.
Active sourcing: reaching the right target group
When certain profiles are hard to reach, publishing a job advert alone is often not enough. Active sourcing and recruitment agencies can help to approach specialists who are not actively looking at the moment. What matters here is the quality of the approach: why might this particular role be the right next career step? Which tasks, scope for shaping the job and working conditions are genuinely on offer?
A credible answer emerges from a conversation with the specialist department. Recruiters should know the role, its challenges and the day-to-day work in detail before they contact candidates. A personal message that addresses specific experience is more helpful than a generic list of benefits.
Employer branding starts with honest answers
Anyone who wants to win talent must be able to explain what awaits them at the company. General statements about flat hierarchies or a great team are rarely enough. Verifiable details are more interesting: how does the team work together? What exactly does the induction look like, and who supports it? Which development steps are realistic? How are working hours planned?
Small and mid-sized companies in particular can play to their strengths here: short decision paths, significant responsibility and proximity to decision-makers. These advantages only work, however, if they are realistic in everyday working life. Let employees describe why they work for their company and what advice they would give new colleagues.
A good candidate experience also includes reliability in the selection process. Name the next steps early, give feedback promptly and address open points clearly. Companies that provide orientation during selection are already showing how they will work together later.
Not just searching, but developing potential within your own company
The Federal Employment Agency's shortage analysis also points to a long-term challenge: demographic change is shrinking the supply of experienced specialists in many areas. Immigration is already helping to cushion the decline. For companies, this means considering international recruitment, recognition of qualifications, language support and good onboarding together, where this suits the role in question.
It is also worth looking inside your own company. Which employees could take on a new task with targeted training? Which role can be designed so that someone from an adjacent occupation can grow into it? An open position becomes easier to fill when searching and developing are planned together.
Our conclusion
The 2026 labour market does not make recruiting easy, but it gives companies a clear assignment: recruit more precisely! Fewer vacancies do not mean that every profile you are looking for is suddenly available. Companies that critically review their requirements, approach suitable people in a targeted way, speak authentically about their working conditions and develop their own potential improve their chances of a timely and lasting hire.
IAB Job Vacancy Survey, 3 September 2026
Federal Employment Agency, Labour market in August 2026
Federal Employment Agency, Skills shortage analysis 2025, published on 2 September 2026
