Study: Job search easier for tradespeople than for software developers

According to an analysis by the job portal Indeed, the job market for IT specialists in Germany is in a downturn. The number of advertised IT jobs had fallen significantly between the beginning of the year and May 24. The professional groups of software development and data analytics & information management have been particularly hard hit, with around 22.8 percent fewer jobs. The decline in IT support and infrastructure was slightly lower at 18.3%.

According to Indeed, the decline in advertised jobs in software development and data analytics is so severe that they have fallen below the pre-corona level this year. Apart from IT jobs, the only other sector where job advertisements have fallen below pandemic levels is marketing. Across all sectors, the number of job advertisements fell by 15.3%. Except the education and training sector, all sectors observed had fallen.

Companies are tougher negotiating partners again

According to Indeed, the bottom has not yet been reached, and there is a clear negative trend, particularly for office jobs that require an academic education. In the current economic situation, companies are holding back on hiring "comparatively expensive staff". After times of an employee market, people are now meeting again at eye level. "For jobseekers, this means that companies are once again becoming tougher negotiating partners in terms of salary and benefits, such as working from home. Tradespeople are currently finding it easier to find a job than software developers or marketers," explained labor market expert Annina Hering from Indeed.

The fact that employers are no longer completely generous with benefits is shown by the trend towards more on-site work and less working from home that has set in since the start of the year. In four of the ten jobs with the highest proportion of home office jobs, a trend towards returning to the office has been apparent since the start of the year. This applies to areas such as IT support, software development, project management and human resources management, which were previously characterized by a particularly high proportion of home office work. Overall, after strong growth between spring 2020 and mid-2023, the proportion of job advertisements with the option to work from home has recently stabilized at just under 15 percent.

However, Indeed expects job advertisements to increase again in the medium term. The level of demand for skilled and unskilled workers of all qualifications remains high and is likely to rise again due to demographic change. According to Indeed, the data source for its analysis is millions of job advertisements on its own portal.

Cooling labor market

Other observers are also seeing a slowdown in the overall labor market: the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), which is part of the German Federal Employment Agency, has identified 10 percent fewer vacancies for the first quarter of 2024 than a year ago. Compared to the first quarter of 2023, there were 180,000 fewer jobs. "The labor market cooled significantly in the first quarter," says labor market researcher Alexander Kubis. The employment agency also writes in its monthly report from May (PDF) that an improvement after a weak spring recovery is still a long way off. The reported demand for new workers continues to decline.

However, the IAB figures do not indicate an above-average job downturn for IT professionals, as is the case with Indeed. In the much broader category of information and communication, which also includes media jobs, the institute counted at least 77,000 advertised jobs in the first quarter of 2024. This is an increase on the previous quarter with 68,000 jobs, but is still below the figures for the boom in 2022. According to the IAB, it examines the total number of vacancies four times a year, including jobs not reported to the employment agencies. For the first quarter of 2024, responses from over 12,000 employers from all sectors of the economy were used.

(axk)