Migrants Are Saving Germany From a U.K.-Style Trucker Shortage

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Migrant workers are saving Europe’s largest economy from the kind of logistical difficulties that have weighed on the U.K., according to a German think tank.

That’s because skilled migrants are filling a rising share of jobs for which companies have struggled to find workers -- especially truck drivers -- the Cologne Institute for Economic Research said in a report.

In the U.K., meanwhile, Brexit has exacerbated acute supply disruptions by choking off access to workers from the European Union.

“Empty supermarket shelves and no more mattresses at Ikea: what’s long been everyday life in Great Britain has yet to materialize in Germany,” economists led by Helen Hickmann said. “Without migrants, labor shortages would be much more dramatic.”

The analysts’ calculations showed the proportion of working migrants who are active in fields that face labor shortages jumped to 49% in 2019 from 19% in 2013. The share of employed Germans in such jobs increased by less during that period, to 52% from 25%. Part of the increase is driven by the fact that more roles now face shortages, the institute said.

The most common skilled occupation for migrants in 2020 was behind the wheel of a truck, with more than 130,000 working as drivers -- a quarter of the total.

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