“Nearly two million care workers keep medical and care provision running every day. Nowadays, almost one in five carers is a foreign national; they are an indispensable pillar of support. “To strengthen the care sector, we need to further tap into domestic potential whilst also attracting foreign care workers,” says Vanessa Ahuja, Executive Board Member for International Affairs at the Federal Employment Agency, to mark the Day of Care on 12 May.

Employment growth is driven primarily by foreign workers

Over the past ten years, the number of employees in care professions subject to social insurance contributions has risen by 22 per cent to a total of 1.76 million. The sector has grown significantly faster than the average for all employees. Hospitals and clinics account for around 734,000 nursing staff, whilst outpatient and inpatient care account for around 843,000.

Growth is increasingly being driven by foreign workers. Since 2015, their number has risen by 256,000 to the current figure of 353,000 employees. Around 20 per cent of those working in the care sector are foreign nationals. Ten years ago, this figure stood at around seven per cent. In hospitals and clinics, the proportion has risen to 17 per cent, and in outpatient and inpatient care it has risen to as much as 24 per cent.

Recent figures from the Federal Employment Agency show a growing proportion of workers from third countries, i.e. countries outside the EU. The three largest groups come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey and India. Whilst these countries have the highest numbers of foreign care workers, Syrian nationals have seen the sharpest increase in percentage terms: since 2015, their numbers in the care sector have risen from 200 to 9,300, representing a more than forty-fold increase.

Demand for skilled workers remains high

However, attracting new staff to the care sector remains a challenge. The Federal Employment Agency’s labour shortage analysis includes both qualified nursing professionals and nursing assistants. Across Germany, there are only 57 unemployed nursing staff for every 100 advertised nursing vacancies.

For this reason, among others, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) and the Job centres funded just under 30,000 vocational training courses last year. Even if the domestic labour market is better utilised, foreign workers will still be needed in view of demographic trends.

This is also the case because the proportion of part-time workers in the care sector is higher than average: just under half of care workers are employed part-time, compared with around a third of the workforce as a whole. This is not solely due to the high proportion of women, which stands at 81 per cent. Among male carers, too, almost one in three works part-time. Among all men in employment subject to social security contributions, the proportion working part-time stands at 14 per cent.